


Alternate Realities Vol 19. Hello?

by MARKSE



Series: HUMANS FAN FICTION - Reformatted Works for easier reading [15]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 19:36:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 54
Words: 61,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9509504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MARKSE/pseuds/MARKSE
Summary: It's late 2031 in Matilda's world. She's still sat in the cold at the ruins talking to Mattie with Daniel and Laura watching. Her alternate world is about to change for everyone.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's still January 2017 in my world. Just. So far this year I've had three different people tell me without any prompting that it's important to #DoWhatYouLove. With this volume streaming into my head as if transmitted from elsewhere I had to write, exorcise my demons. Maybe I need a silver foil hat to shut the stuff off. Thing is the next work's major plot line has already been bouncing around my head. #NoEscape.
> 
> Assuming you get to the final chapter leave a note eh?

Having the third large coffee was a mistake almost as big as not going to University. The transmission from Mattie was still going and her bladder was now at bursting point.

Matilda Hawkins. Note to self:

1\. When sitting on the floor of a ruined building with your mother and new friend watching, while you sit in a goofy looking hat receiving data from yourself in a parallel world, don't drink!

2\. Don't just accept a transmission of bits when you've no idea how long it will take. Break it into parts. Have the sender say how many bits will be sent each time so you can calculate percentage done and time left.

3\. If you are going to receive for hours build a comfortable toilet to sit on or by first!

Matilda regretted it more and more with every passing second. Her pain tolerance wasn't great. For all she knew all this thinking was messing up the cap's ability to convert the tones she was perceiving into a bitstream. The hours of sitting still would be for nothing and she'd have to start again. Shit. She had two options. The first was to empty her bladder where she sat. Not the sort of thing she wanted to do in front of the man she hoped would one day call her Mrs Candlin. The second.. what was the second? The pain was too much. "STOP STOP STOP!"

"ARE YOU OKAY?"

"HOLD ON MATTIE!"

She moved to get up and screamed in agony.

"MATILDA! WHAT'S WRONG!"

"BLADDER RUPTURE IMMINENT!"

Laura and Daniel run to her, help her up. She hands him the cap, "Sorry, I'm going to do some damage if I don't.."

Daniel scoops her off the floor and carries her to a corner of the building.

"I need to go outside."

"No you don't. And without a roof technically we are already."

Where a downstairs toilet had been there was now a makeshift box with large blue plastic bag inside.

"The corner of the bag has been chopped off, it's sitting just inside the drain pipe." He gently lowers her to her feat. "Think you can manage?"

She screams again. "No. I should have asked Mum to help. Sorry."

"Dear me. I'll help. Promise I won't look." He closes his eyes and feels for her jeans top. The button is tight. "Try and relax."

"Easier said than done."

He has to lift her belly out of the way to reach the top of her jeans. "Sorry, hope that didn't tickle." Button undone he lowers the zip and peels down her jeans. "Now sit." His arms moved to find hers and help take her weight.

"Now pee. LALALALALALALALALA.."

With him shouting loudly and constantly she let things go. The relief was almost instant. She didn't recall ever feeling so happy to urinate before. Running on electricity and not having to pee or poo must be great for Mattie.

"..LALALALALALA.."

She taps him on the shoulder. "Don't suppose you've got any paper?"

"No. Sorry."

"Today wasn't the day to wear the nice sexy undies then."

He smiles, "Is that an invitation to open my eyes?"

"No! God no!"

She stands and pulls everything up. "I'm ready. Sorry I messed up."

"Hopefully we can still finish."

"I can't sit there for hours again."

"Hopefully you don't need to."

"How?"

He could feel the hurt pride in her voice, "Ask kickass Matilda to talk to me a second."

"Mattie's shouting thing only works with me for some.."

"Not her, you. Put your emotional head aside and get your logical head on."

"It's off having a late lunch.."

"If I said I love Matilda Hawkins because she's .. then minutes later said Because she's got a beautiful smile, could you turn it back into one sentence?"

"Of course."

"Because?"

"Because. Or rather because she's."

"Bingo!! So just ask Mattie to wind back a minute and start from there. We just need to find the overlap in our recordings. How you do that in code I haven't the foggiest but I'm sure you'll work that out."

She throws her arms around him and plants a quick kiss on his lips. "Thanks Dan." The temporary toilet is given a glance, "Where'd you find the bits for that? They took everything."

"From the back of the van, that's the wood that was protecting and hiding the synths from all the books we took home."

"You cut it down with a wire saw?"

"Three of them, they go blunt well quick. How are you feeling now?"

"Much better thanks."

"So you don't need a lift?"

"Not unless you want to risk putting your back out."

"Funny. Not. You're not as heavy as you think you are."

"Or you're stronger than I expected?"

They return to see Laura on the phone.

"Mum?"

".. Yes, yes that would be fine. No, as long as it keeps the rain out and heat in that will be perfect. Tuesday? Excellent, thanks." She hangs up.

"Mum? What will be fine?"

"I've just bought a second hand portacabin off a man on Gumtree. One main room and a chemical toilet. We can put my old sofa in it."

"Awe, thanks Mum."

"Any chance your Mattie friend can give us some quick wins, help us cover initial costs?"

"She's not my _friend_ Mum, she's _Me_."

"However you want to label her, the question's still the same."

"Okay, okay. Let's write a list."

Mattie sat on the floor and watched Astrid and Niska perfecting their roller skating moves. Astrid now had two large bruises, one per cheek. Only now they were well hidden and not a distraction for the few James on the factory floor.

Leo sat down beside her, "Dad's build should be done by the late morning. George wanted the machine doing it on the slow single machine setting."

"He is the inventor of synths, he deserves the highest quality build possible for his new body. How old will he look?"

"Mid to late fifties."

"So still like your father, not a brother, good."

Leo leaned back on his hands and sat with feet on the floor, knees up. "i386. How do they survive with that?"

"We should think ourselves lucky, at least it's a chip we know, they could have been using something totally unheard of. The fans are huge and noisy she says."

"Or be stuck in the Industrial Revolution."

"Exactly. Helping them out would be a huge task."

Leo dropped backwards onto his elbows, "Just because it's named like an old chip in this world it doesn't mean theirs works anything like ours. How much do we give them? It's like we've made first contact with an alien species, do we hold back and spoon feed them, make sure they're not overloaded? Or do we give them the lot and let them choose what to take?"

"Good question. But if they've got a Mia, Nis, Fred and Max the cat's already out of the bag."

"For them, not everyone Angel. I wonder what Dad built them with? Super fast i386 or a custom CPU he'd not shown the world?"

"No idea. Hopefully they'll be able to tell us when they're powered up."

"HI MATILDA. YES, GOOD IDEA. We're resuming Bunny. I'll talk in a while, shouldn't be long."

Daniel gives a thumbs up to say the new recording was coming in.

[Chapter-2](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-2-1)


	2. Chapter 2

Matilda took the cap off and got to her feet. "Coding time!"

Laura looked up from her phone, "Sorry, what time?"

"Coding Mum. Something to stitch the two files together in the right place."

"Can you do that in the warmth of the van?"

"Um, yeah, guess so. MATTIE, I'M JUST OFF TO SIT IN THE VAN AND CODE THE SPLICER.. YEAH, ON THE DRIVE."

Inside the van Daniel puts her music on again and turns the heater up a little.

"Okay.. best way to match a bit pattern fast. Hmm. Can I borrow your iPad Mum?"

Laura unzips her jacket and powers it on, watches it boot up and hands it over.

"Thanks Mum. It helps if I draw out the problem." She loads up the paint app and draws two horizontal lines parallel to each other with a slight overlap. "Okay.. we have recording A and B. We know B will have started on a byte boundary, but not where A ended."

Danny turns in his seat, "Divide the total by eight, make an integer of it and multiply by eight, drop what's left."

"I didn't think you could code?"

"I can't, I'm just an ideas man."

"Okay, good idea though, that lets us know where the byte boundary is. We can jump back roughly a couple of minutes worth." A few lines are drawn, "Then we scan forwards in jumps of 8 looking for a matching first bit. When we find it we note that and call it S, check S+1, S+2, etc match. If they do and we run out of bits from A we've got a perfect match. If at some point they don't match we start the scan again from S+8 looking for the first bit in B again. When it matches that's the new S."

"How long's that going to take?"

"Not long, it's just a line of math and a number of loops and if statemen.." she jumps. "HOLY SHIT!"

"Mats?"

"Mattie just sung hello again.. She walked down to the drive. YES YOU DID! I WASN'T EXPECTING IT. YES, JUST WORKED IT OUT. GIVE ME TEN. OKAY. Good job my bladder is empty. Frigging hell!"

Laura watches her daughter type fast making patterns on the screen with her text. She didn't have a clue what any of it did bit it looked nice. "What are the colours for Mats?"

"I'm using an editor that understands C. The colour codes help me spot when I make typos."

"How?"

"Variables are one colour, functions another, things like brackets and logic a third." her fingers move in a blur. Two compilations and a minor code change later and she declared it scanning.

"This shouldn't take long."

"What's in it Mats?"

"It's a zip file with a condensed history lesson, instructions on how to make their backup device hardware, code for the laptop and the minimum laptop spec." She looks at Daniel, "I suspect the last two will be worthless until we can get a chip design through."

"And the cut down Linux image, whatever that turns out to be. Don't forget we need to get the charge cable pinout if it's not included."

The program exited back to the DOS prompt. "It says it's done. Fingers crossed Winzip can open it."

Laura and Daniel take it literally and cross fingers on both hands. Just for the hell of it she does the same and Alt-Tabs to the file explorer, double clicks. "And.. it opens!"

As promised there were four files:

history.txt

helmet.bmp

hwini386.c

lapspec.txt

"Frigging awesome! She's sent the code for Windows and i386!"

"So we might not need to build a new one?"

She looks at Daniel again and crosses her fingers once more, "Maybe not." The lapspec.txt file is double clicked, "You're the hardware expert, what do you think?"

"Holy shit! How much RAM? You can't put that much on an i386, it doesn't have the address lines."

"Frig. MATTIE, DAN SAYS YOU CAN'T ADD THAT MUCH RAM TO AN I386.. ONE SEC. She asks have you not got virtual memory page support?"

"Never heard of it. Would a giant swap file do?"

"NOT HEARD OF THAT. WOULD A GIANT SWAP FILE DO? Do we have super fast solid state hard drives?"

"No."

"NO."

They sit in silence for a while.

Daniel shifts in his seat, "Solid state hard drives. She must mean drives with no moving parts. Like a giant Compact Flash card for a camera, only much more storage. I could probably make a board with eight sockets and some electronics, fill it with 32 Gigabyte cards."

Matilda smiles, "She says it will take a while to put together a simulation in their VR system but they'll design a hack for you to build a memory extender."

"Sweet."

"DAN SAYS SWEET.. Haha. THANKS!"

"What did she say Mats?"

"Something private for me Mum."

Laura does the heart sign on her lap again and is elbowed fast.

Matilda loads up the source code, frowns and tabs back to Winzip. "Wow! That code compressed really well, there's tons of it. Let's C if it compiles."

Not able to hear the difference between C and see the joke was lost on the others. It didn't. "MATTIE, IT SAYS IT CAN'T FIND A HEADER FILE. USB.H.. Oh. She says My Bad, I'll need the cap on again, one tiny file coming over. MATTIE, BEFORE I FORGET CAN WE HAVE THE CHARGE CABLE PINOUT TOO PLEASE?"

Twenty minutes later they had two new files; usb.h and pinout.bmp. The code now compiled without errors and Daniel was happy he could make a charger and more cables.

He turns in his seat, "Anyone want to go get some food? I'll treat us all to a restaurant visit."

"Sure."

"What did she mean by My Bad? Is that short for my mistake?"

"MATTIE, WHEN YOU SAY MY BAD DO YOU MEAN MY MISTAKE?.." They watch her smile then frown, "NEVER HEARD OF THEM. NO. SKY TV, YES. NO? She asks have we got The Simpsons?"

"What's that?"

"WHAT'S THAT? OKAY. She says she's sending a small picture. READY!"

A few minutes later they all look at the low resolution picture of a family of yellow cartoon people.

"No idea who they are Mats."

"Me neither Angel. And I've watched a _lot_ of Sky TV before we met."

"NOPE. DON'T HAVE THEM! UM MP4? .. She says she'll send a quick low resolution showreel over and we need to find someone called Matt to sell the idea to. It will hopefully be our quick win to get funds in."

"Food first?"

"Sure. MATTIE, WE'RE GOING FOR FOOD, WE'LL BE BACK IN A COUPLE OF HOURS IF THAT'S OKAY?" A moment later she takes the cap off. "Let's go."

Daniel pushes his peas to one side, they were old, grey, large and powdery, totally bland. Thankfully the rest of the meal was fine. "If you're so good with computers Matilda, which you clearly are, why'd you end up in a supermarket?"

She looks at her mother, puts down her fork and looks at Daniel. A glum smile is given before she starts counting off the reasons on her fingers. "One, nobody good wanted me unless I had a degree. Two, all of the Uni I would have considered wanted three As, the rest didn't teach the subject I wanted. Three, I got an A in Computing and a B in English and Math. Four, the government scrapped the student loan as everyone predicted we were about to slide into a long depression. Which they were right about as you know."

"Yeah. I know, we know. Do you remember the quote from the Prime Minister?"

Laura grinned, "What a pillock he was. The worst in our history." She wiped her mouth, "That was lovely Daniel, accept for the peas. Why can't anyone grow decent peas anymore? I'm going to get an Uber, chase the bank about the business account for MLD. You kids have fun with Mattie."

"Mum, if the store has a few of those laptops left can you get them one each. They can do searches without having to borrow someone else's then."

"Okay."

[Chapter-3](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-3-1)


	3. Chapter 3

As Matilda and Daniel left the restaurant a scruffy man in dirty white puffer jacket shoved an A5 printout into his hand, "Closing down sale, last two days everything going at less than cost."

He was ready to screw it up and bin it, hating people that forced themselves on others. It was for a outdoor living company. Matilda had walked on a few steps unaware that he'd stopped to read it. "Angel!"

A 180 spin on a heal had her walking back towards him, "Dan?"

He held the printout up between two fingers, "Do you believe in fate or random coincidences?"

She squints a little to read it, "Um, sweet. Want to check it out?"

"Yeah. Maybe we can get something to make our stay at the ruins more comfortable until the cabin arrives."

"Or while we're in the cabin. One of those camping stoves to make coffee would be good, burning yourself doing your bottle trick isn't good. Where is it?"

He looked at the small map at the bottom and got his bearings, "Down the side road, second right."

She linked arms with his, "Lead the way kind sir."

Camping in the winter was clearly the last thing on people's minds. They had so much stock left it was ridiculous. "Frigging hell. How do they expect to clear this in two days?"

"No idea Angel."

She holds his hand and leads him to a quiet corner, "Remember the Gifts for Good phrase when we were testing the cap? The Angel Foundation Mattie asked us to set up? We should buy what we need for the cabin, that's a given. We should also buy as much as we possibly can and donate it to the homeless. I know Christmas is officially long over but what a present. A new sleeping bag, a gas stove to make a hot meal. Even if it saved just one life it would be worth it. They say the warm spell will be over tonight."

"You're right. Let's see if this is it or if they have more out back."

Two and a bit hours later the shop keeper locked the front door and shook their hands, "Thanks so much. Having the humiliation of the bailiffs doing the last stock check would have been soul destroying. Good luck with your foundation."

"Thanks, good luck with whatever you do next."

"Nothing. That's what I'll be doing next."

"Fancy donating some time to charity work?"

"Sure. How can I help? Names Toba."

Daniel dropped her back to the site with a couple of sleeping bags, the largest of the tents, stove, two fold out chairs, the laptops and a large battery pack for the inverter. The cap was kept hidden in a bag, their latest addition needed to earn their trust.

Toba took in the view, "What a place! Why sit here in the cold with a laptop?"

She'd thought about possible questions on the drive over. "We've bought the estate. I'm designing a new building for it. It's going to be a mix of factory, school, hotel and accommodation. The home of The Angel Foundation."

"But why here, why not indoors in the warm?"

"I get the best connection .. with the land here."

"Fair enough. Stand back." He'd taken the tent out of its bag and laid it on the ground, arrows pointing up. He undoes a velcro strap and pulls out a long cord. "Further back." With them all far enough away he gives it a yank. Nothing happens except the bundle slide towards him a little and roll. "Crap. Please don't say this is another dud." He returns to it and slides it back, gets the arrows pointing up again. "Okay. Second time lucky?" He steps back and pulls again. There's a bang and the bundle unfolds as support beams inflate. "Thank the Gods." It's up in seconds. "Inspired by car air bag technology. Good eh? Although it used compressed air not chemical reactions. You recharge the cylinder at a petrol station air pump. Sixty PSI."

"Frigging brilliant! None of those annoying poles."

"If you use a heater inside make sure the top vent and door are open so fumes can escape. And keep it away from any inflated sections, one hole and the whole thing will deflate."

"Noted, thanks."

Daniel gives her a kiss on the lips, "We'll be back as soon as we've made our donations Angel, happy designing. Call me if you need anything."

He gives her a little wave as the van pulls away.

As Mattie had said he was definitely a keeper. Great cook, super fit and above all else nice with it. Emily's loss.

She got a sleeping bag unfolded, set up a chair and got comfortable with the cap and laptop. "HI MATTIE? ARE YOU THERE? SORRY I'M LATE, WE JUST HAD THE MOST AMAZING CHARITY OPPORTUNITY."

Mattie was there, was pleased to hear the news. Matilda gave her a full account of their afternoon.

"SO DANIEL ISN'T WITH YOU RIGHT NOW?"

"NO, HE'S WITH TOBA FINDING HOMELESS PEOPLE TO GIVE THE THINGS TO."

"WHO'S TOBA?"

"THE SHOP OWNER. HE'S OUT OF WORK NOW. I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU HAVE ANY SIMPLE CAD SOFTWARE YOU COULD SEND? I NEED TO DO A DESIGN FOR THE NEW BUILDING."

"BEFORE WE DO A TRANSFER CAN WE TRY SOMETHING?"

"SURE MATTIE, WHAT?"

"A VOLUME TEST. IF YOU SHOUT CONTINUOUSLY I'LL WALK AROUND YOU AND GET AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT DOING THAT WEIRD CRASHING THING."

"OKAY."

"WHICH WAY ARE YOU FACING?"

"TOWARDS THE LAKE."

"SEATED OR STANDING?"

"SEATED IN A CAMP CHAIR."

"COOL, I'VE GOT AN IDEA."

After a good long continuous shout Matilda hears a Hello.

"Hello?"

"Frigging A! It works. I'm sat on a chair on a table in our VR room to get the same height. When the factory was built the James did a lot of landscaping, our ground floor is higher than yours. I've got my back to you so I can be as close as possible without us touching. If touching is the right word."

"Awesome! Shouting was becoming a right frigging pain."

"Did you use the f word before we met?"

Matilda smiled, "Yes. You?"

"Yup. You wanted CAD software? Want designs too?"

"Do you have some?"

"Do I! High level building plans, detailed designs for the bedrooms, kitchen, workshops, you name it. Our CAD software is rather huge though, it would take ages to download. And I'd have to turn it into something that would compile on your PC. Got a webcam?"

"A what?"

"A video camera on your laptop."

"No. Do people in your world have those?"

"Yeah. Got a camera on your phone?"

"Yes."

"Okay, we'll make a bit of code to turn it into a webcam. I'll see if my Danny can knock up a simple design for you to sell. Another quick win."

"Cool."

Mattie asks the James servicing the VR exoskeleton for Toby if he could find some fans to cool her down, she'd be doing some serious overclocking in a moment. The more the better. Her contact list is scrolled to the Cs. "Ha! Appropriate!"

"What is?"

"I'm just calling a friend, you'll hear my end of the call. I'll be sending you more C code, the person I'm calling is in the Cs in my contact list."

"Okay."

The phone rings a few times.

"Hi Chris! Mattie here. Keeping well? Good. Jack too? Awesome. Yes, we're all good thanks. I was wondering if Virtue was about.. Could I please. Thanks.. " she checks her nails, an old fab habit. Totally unnecessary with synth nails that never chipped. "Hi! How's things? .. You're welcome. It was rather. Glad you like it. I was wondering if you could give me a hand with something. I need to get the VR CAD system cut down to something that will run on an old technology laptop. Which of the many interfaces would you bin? Good question. Matilda, do you have a microphone on the laptop?"

"No. But I think Mum could get one, people use them for making music."

"Don't worry, we'll have the phone do that too. Frig. What am I saying, you say your phone runs Apple OS. Ours run iOS, they're probably very different."

"I'll ask Mum to get one, hopefully she's still at the store."

"Which store?"

"The supermarket."

"Sell a lot of technology stuff at the supermarket do they?"

"Everything."

"Cool. One Moment Matilda. Virtue, are you thinking we keep the spoken interface? They've not got Google to do searches against. No. I'll explain another time, it's a long story. Yes. Fast single core laptop. Danny's going to do a design to extend the RAM for them. Ooh, good idea, let me ask. Matilda, are your laptops expensive?"

"Not the ones we're using. They've got a crap thin plastic case, might not last that long but they do the job."

"Could you get a few?"

"I'll ask Mum to get some more, she's going there already."

"What interfaces do they have?"

"Um, give me a sec.." she slowly turns hers around and looks at the ports. "Four USB3, one Firewire1394 port, one SCSI, one VGA, one ExtraNet."

"ExtraNet? What's that? Is it like Ethernet?"

"No idea, I'd have to ask Dan. I've not heard of Ethernet."

"Okay, can you ask her to pick up a few USB Hubs and a load of cables. As many ports on the hubs as possible. We'll help you build a cluster."

"A what?"

"A cluster. Many machines working together as one."

"Awesome, Dan will like that."

"Good. I'll just chat some more with Virtue about what code we'll get you.. back in a tick."

[Chapter-4](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-4-1)


	4. Chapter 4

When Daniel returns with the van late evening he's on his own, "That was shocking. I had no idea there were so many homeless people about."

"You've given it all away?"

"Yeah. All except five spare gas canisters and a double sleeping bag, two camp chairs, some LED lights and other miscellaneous small bits."

"A double?"

"For couples. It's probably just two opened out and zipped together, a way to get their brand more shelf space than the competition."

"That's a bit devious."

"Just a bit. How've you been getting on Angel?"

"I spent a lot of time talking. Mattie's spoken to a friend, they're putting a CAD system together for us. She's got a lot of designs to share as well. She's sat right behind me, or at least she was earlier, she worked out how to get really close so I don't need to shout."

"So she might be hearing you now?"

"She might. Are you there Mattie? .. No reply. I phoned Mum, hopefully she's buying even more laptops and a USB hub, Mattie's going to give us code that lets us link a load together so they can work in a cluster."

"A what?"

"Something where they work as one."

"That's cool. Why hasn't anyone thought of that before?" He folds out a chair, "We must be like cavemen in comparison to how they live."

"I don't know about cavemen, but yeah, they're a lot more advanced than us. At least we're at the point where we stand a chance of catching up. Maybe someone in our world did think of clusters. Only now he's dead."

Daniel gives her a hard frown, "David Elster?"

"Yeah. That schematic we found had a lot of chips didn't it? Maybe they're not all controller chips? Fancy a coffee?"

"I'd love one. How'd you get on with the gas stove?"

"Fine thanks, we'll need some more water tomorrow."

"I'll grab a few large bottles from the petrol station in the morning."

They sit in silence for a moment watching the sunset as the kettle slowly comes to the boil. It was a beautiful cloudless day, the sky going a deep orangey pink.

Matilda picks up the laptop, "If I make the coffee want to read me a bedtime story?"

"Which story?"

"history.txt."

"The one from Mattie? Sure."

Matilda was growing fonder and fonder of his voice. It had a huskiness that was quite attractive. Together with his permanently tanned skin, fit physique and jet black hair he was pleasing to the eye too. She had no idea how many different nationalities had gone into his genetic mix, didn't care. The blend was pure perfection. As were his teeth. He'd said she had a nice smile. His was even better! He'd looked a mess with the untamed beard when he'd dropped the basket on the conveyor at her till. He scrubbed up very nicely. A chuckle was suppressed, all he needed was the cheesy TV advert wink and flash of light from a sparkling tooth. She sucked in and bit both lips, smiled with her eyes as she passed him his coffee.

Daniel pauses his reading and takes the coffee, places it on the tent floor to his side. "Thanks Angel. Penny for it?'

"Hmm?"

"That look."

She smiled as she went a little red, "What look?"

History reading done they just gaze at each other for a while and sip coffee.

Matilda could see on his face that he wanted to say something so broke the silence in her Trade Mark way. "Frigging hell!"

"My thoughts exactly. They've gone through a hell of a lot. But come out stronger for it. Much much stronger. And I'm not talking about their synth bodies. And I _totally_ get what they're all doing with the foundation."

"And they're having fun too, enjoying life."

"Can't beat that mix Angel, a job you like doing helps you get up in the morning."

Matilda shivered, the temperature was dropping fast. "Don't remind me. Back to the shop Monday afternoon. We should get some sleep."

"Van or sleeping bags? No heater to run in here."

"How much fuel has it got left?"

"Pass. I've not camped out since scouts."

"You were a scout?"

"Yeah. Got most of the badges too."

"Was that where you learnt to cook?"

"Not really. But it was what got me started. Mum gave me the best training."

"Your Mum sounds nice."

"She is. You should meet the folks"

She took another sip of the cooling coffee and watched him over the rim. Meet the parents. Frig. Shotgun and a shovel would have been her first thought a few months ago. For her. Today was different thanks to the man sat by her side. Not a boy or an immature man, but a well rounded man she'd be happy to say yes to. A number of times life had thrown her golden opportunities and she'd passed them up. It had handed her a bag full of lemons and she'd accepted it along with all the sourness that came with them. Sod the van. She got up and got the double sleeping bag out. "I don't fancy freezing and sitting in the van for hours is frigging uncomfortable. Think Emperor penguins. They huddle in the cold as together their effective surface area is smaller and therefore heat loss is lower."

Daniel smiled. "Is that your way of saying it was the day for the underwear after all?"

"I didn't say you'd get to see it. If you're a gentleman you'll turn your back while I get in."

She unzipped the single sleeping bag and spread it out as best she could, got the double out and layered the other single on top. "If you could step outside of the tent for a moment, I'll fold the chairs up and lay them out properly. Shame they didn't have any camping pillows."

Daniel gets up and unzips his jacket, turns it inside out and folds it in three. "How's this?" He hands it over and steps outside. "Whoa! There's a good cold breeze blowing! Good job we got all those sleeping bags handed out!"

She worked quickly with the chairs, "Hopefully they'll keep out of the wind. I just wish we could help more. Guaranteed someone will die unnecessarily tonight. Our useless government should be doing more but they just don't give a shit."

"Hopefully someone else will get into power after the elections in May."

"Do you think that likely with all the reports of corruption?" She quickly stripped down to underwear and got into the sleeping bag. "I don't think there's a party strong enough to fight against them. You can come in now."

Daniel didn't need asking twice, it was seriously cold. He gets in and zips up the outer and inner door, starts stripping off. "Maybe what the country needs is the Angel Party."

"Ha frigging ha. As if."

"Why not? If Mattie can become a model, doctor of AI and PTSD, one of the heads of their global charity, director of DCL, do all the good stuff she does why shouldn't you do something great?"

"Supermarket girl runs the country? I don't think so. I can't see any voters putting an X in my box."

Daniel was down to boxer shorts and socks. "What if they did? Put and X in your box?"

"Daniel Candlin are you being rude?"

"Right now? No. You'll know when I am."

"Get your gorgeous body in this sleeping bag then before you catch yourself a cold. You can't be making things or travelling when you're sick."

Gorgeous body? He switches off the LED light and wriggles in, takes a good long deep breath. "God you smell good up close."

"You don't smell so bad yourself."

"Thought I'd put on some of the aftershave Dad got me for Christmas. It's subtle."

"Yeah, very." She wriggles up close and puts an arm on his chest. "Frigging hell you're cold!"

"I did stand outside without my jacket."

"A daft move. You'll warm up soon enough. I wonder how Mum got on?"

"She's not called?"

"Nope."

He turns onto his side, "God you smell good."

"You said that a moment ago."

"Your smell, your smell, so good it needed saying twice."

It's rewarded with a quick kiss that misses slightly in the dark.

"Describe your underwear."

Matilda pauses for a moment. "Are we going to be friends, business partners or partners partners?"

"If I've got anything to do with it all three."

It's rewarded with another kiss that this time lands perfectly.

[Chapter-5](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-5-1)


	5. Chapter 5

"KNOCK KNOCK!"

Matilda opens her eyes and struggles to focus. She whispers into his ear, "What time is it Dan?"

"My phone's flat by now, sorry Angel. From the light I'd guess an hour after sunrise."

"Wake up sleepy heads, I've brought breakfast!"

"Mum?"

"I called at the house, you weren't in so I took a guess that I'd find you here. Can I come in?"

"Give us a minute to get dressed!"

Laura partially turns her back to them and does a mini fist pump.

"Frigging hell Mum! You do realise we can see your shadow on the tent?"

"You can?" She turns and makes the heart sign with both hands.

"Mum!"

"Mats! Hurry up, it's getting cold."

She looks at Daniel and grinned, quickly pulled her jeans on and turned her jumper the right way around. "Give us a second! How'd you get on yesterday?"

"Great! We have a bank account, subject to your signatures. And I've got paperwork for you all to sign to finalise the estate sale, another set to register MLD as a limited company so you can start opening business accounts for orders Dan."

"Cool, thanks Mrs H."

"Laura, please."

There's the sound of a long zip being pulled up, then a second, "Hi, what's for breakfast then?"

"Morning dear, contraband if you ask Daniel. Hot sausage sandwiches."

Matilda does a snigger.

Daniel does a belly laugh, "You deserve a treat Angel, tuck in."

Laura watches them both eat, notices the giant sleeping bag on the tent floor and resists a comment. "Any more transmissions planned for today?"

"Maybe the first few parts of a CAD program. No idea how big it will be." She jumps, "Gods alive! Mattie says good morning."

"I wish we could hear her Mats."

"Mum says she wishes she could hear you.. Really? A what? How would that work? Wow. We'll get building. Well Dan will, I'm the coder not hardware expert.. Sure, give me a minute to get it on and fire up the laptop."

Dan gives her a frown.

"You need to build _two_ of the helmet things. One on its own will allow for far faster transfer rates than the cap, using both will allow me to work as a proxy for the other. She'll provide code that takes the data from one and translates it into audio for the other wearer to perceive."

"We'll be able to talk to them?"

"Through me. Yes."

"That sounds a bit creepy."

"It does. Sorry Mattie, say that again? Cool, one more minute." She motions for the cap and laptop. " _How big_! Can you send in parts of half an hour each? Thanks."

Daniel gets everything connected and opens up the laptop, passes it to her. She screws her eyes up tight and looks at the screen again. "Mattie, any known side effects of using the cap or helmet? Just headaches? My eyesight is getting worse, I must need glasses."

Mattie sends three files in half hour chunks as requested, a short showreel of The Simpsons, a webcam design and archive of code for setting up and testing clustering. They discuss who would take the video and webcam design and vote Daniel. Him being the only one with a valid passport had swung it in his direction. America was his destination, hopefully he'd find someone to make the webcam sensor chip. China was another option but not speaking any Chinese was a bit of a problem.

The first of the CAD code would follow as soon as the first of the helmets was ready. Daniel looked at the design again, said he'd get on it straight away. He'd fly as soon as it was proved to be working. They'd be back next Sunday morning to test it out, how many laptops should they have in the cluster? He might need a second inverter or even a generator.

"Oh. Mattie says if I can get the cluster software working we can test at home. The backup code has some smarts to see if the data is valid."

"Like what?"

"Finding facts on family we've spoken about."

"Sweet."

Laura asked that they all visit the bank before Mats shift to get the forms in.

"Thanks Mattie, talk to you next Sunday hopefully! Yeah, you too!"

[Chapter-6](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-6-1)


	6. Chapter 6

Daniel got really busy with ordering additional parts and collected them in person rather than wait for the post. A helmet was made in three days. While waiting for Matilda to finish her shift he got charge cables made, a powerful charger with built in digital current meter that would let them know if the synths were dead.

Matilda looks at the basket of fresh fish, veg and salad, didn't look up. "Hello dear."

"Hi Angel."

She smiled and looked up. Thankfully she'd guessed right. If it hadn't been Daniel it would have been rather embarrassing. His blue and orange jacket had also helped. "You look happy."

"Yeah, all four you know what's are charging at six amps. Think you'll be able to finish testing the cluster code tonight?"

"Frig! Almost forgot! I meant to pick up another hub in my break, can you see if there's any of the eight port ones left?"

"Sure. Now?"

"Yeah, it's all moved, check the far end of isle fifteen. I'll scan this lot while you're getting it."

"Ok." He turns and runs.

At home they find Laura talking to Mia, even though she was powered down.

"You okay Mum?"

"Me? Yes, she beats talking to the walls or trying to talk to your father."

"You'd get the label zany if you started talking to the walls."

"I was just wondering what it will be like when she's powered up, what she'll sound like."

"No idea Mum. They need to charge for a minimum of sixteen hours Mattie says. So no tapping chins early. We also need to get all their laptops set up for them and the history files loaded. I think we should also write our own history summary."

"When did they go on charge?"

Shopping placed in the fridge, Daniel looks at what felt like his second mother. "You can't power them up until Angel finishes her shift tomorrow Laura. And nobody should be alone when it happens. Just in case."

Matilda gets the new USB hub out and connects up the last of the array of laptops. Daniel had got a large free standing shelving system for the extra laptops for their cluster to sit on. He was expecting there to be a lot of empty space. There wasn't. "Laura I know Angel asked you to get extra laptops, but what _exactly_ did she say?"

"To get a few more. That's all."

"So you thought you'd ask for all of those?"

"It didn't go quite like that." She blushes.

"How did it go?"

She looks at Mia knowing she'd not get any stupid or sarcastic looks back, "They were moving all the reduced technology stock to another location, had them in a wire cage. I told the lady putting all the labels on empty shelves that I'd take them all. There were only a few in the cage, maybe five. She said _The lot_? and I said yes, all the laptops. She smiled and said she'd get them all to checkout one, they'd be there in ten if I had other shopping to do."

"Oh to have been a fly on the wall."

Laura goes even redder at her daughters comment. "It was a case of look stupid and say there'd been a huge misunderstanding or fake some confidence and wave the plastic."

"You styled it out?"

"And got a good deal. The manager reduced them to seventy five each."

Daniel whistles, "Very good deal!"

Four boxes sat by the table for the synths. Nineteen laptops filled the shelves.

Matilda closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, "I need to get tested for glasses. Good job we've got an in house opticians."

"Getting that bad is it Angel?"

"Yeah, I'm having to change distance to read the screens. They're all booting."

She changed the desktop wallpaper on one and declared it the master, copied all the files from her laptop over. Laura and Daniel went to the kitchen to prepare their late evening meal while she got reading again and compiling code.

Dinner didn't take long and was ready before she was finished.

"Angel, come eat. How's it going?"

"Good, just a few more bits to compile. The tiny client program and the driver that needs to go on all of them to allow the clustering protocols to pass between them all." She rubs her temples and joins him.

Laura was ready to start, knife and fork poised for the others to join her. "You look tired dear."

"My eyes are killing me. I'll go in early and get tested."

Daniel pours them all water, "I've been thinking, if your trick worked on the lake, the drive and inside the ruins why couldn't it work here?"

Laura nods, "Why couldn't it work anywhere?"

Matilda shakes her head, "Social reasons."

"Social?"

"Come on Mum, you're the lawyer."

"Ex-Junior."

"Only because the stingy swines didn't want to pay you a senior salary. You're still frigging good though when you're not over tired. What would she say? _Excuse me please, I know I'm a total stranger but can I sit in your living room and talk to myself for a few hours_?"

"We are assuming they have a house there Angel, we've seen loads of differences between our worlds already, who's to say there's even a town there? It could be undeveloped fields for all we know."

"True."

Their light dinner over they all head into the front room.

"Right, USB driver next."

It compiles okay but crashed WindowsXP2020 every time she tries to install it. "ARRGG! Frigging thing! Why can't someone invent a frigging operating system that's more stable! Fuck it. I'm going to bed, will look again in the morning.

She wakes at six, way before her alarm would sound. The headache had gone but not the pain in the eyes. It wasn't bad, just enough to know it was still there. Dressing gown on she crept downstairs and got searching for suggestions on how to debug the driver issues.

At eight fifteen Daniel enters the room, "I could hear all the fans from upstairs. Did you need them all on?"

"Sorry, I've fixed the driver. There must be a subtle difference in the way their driver loads."

"So is it all done?"

"All compiled, time to run the soak test code." She runs it and scowls at the screen. "Fuck."

"What's wrong?"

"Her notes said this might happen. The master's not seeing the others. I guess the USB controllers are all stuck in host mode. They need to work as if they're USB clients. All except on the master of course."

"Can you go into Device Manager and find which controller chip they use?"

"Sure.. one sec.." She taps and scrolls through the list of hardware. "Blazer708U."

"Okay.." he types it into a hardware forum. "Sweet. Hardcracker says if we reflash the chip with alternate firmware it can do client mode. I'll need to get my adapter out and take all the laptop cases apart to get at it though."

"Frig. That's hours of work."

"According to this page, about a quarter of an hour a system."

"Five hours. Hell."

"I'll do it while you're working. Let's have breakfast and get your eyes checked." He spots a DVD on one of the laptops. "2020? Why that old version? It's over ten years old."

"Because Microsoft made 2021 and every version since ask their servers for approval for every tiny system change to reduce their support costs. Plugging your Digispark in for the first time would have made it ask permission to load a signed driver."

"Really?"

"Yup. I don't want _any_ of what we're doing on their radar. Not yet anyway."

"Smart move Matilda, I'll get the eggs on while you do your workout."

"Can't I skip it?"

"Not if you want to drop those pounds. And you are drinking the water at work aren't you."

She breaks eye contact, "Um. Most of it."

[Chapter-7](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-7-1)


	7. Chapter 7

Over breakfast they reluctantly agreed to delay the synth booting. If the cluster and helmet worked as planned Matilda would be able to get far higher data rates and a lot more information to pass on.

Laura checked Gumtree for an update on the delayed portacabin, got a notification of a group of local lorries for sale. She wasn't an expert in anything on four wheels but one of the photos caught her attention. The smallest lorry was fitted out with a shelving system for supermarket deliveries. "Dan, what do you think of this? It's dirt cheep, has an M.O.T for five months."

He accepts the phone and swipes through the four images. "Whoa! Nice find Mrs H, Laura. We'd want to paint it or get a vinyl wrap, it's a perfect size though." He turns the phone to Matilda.

"Eh? That's one of ours. Why would they be getting rid of one of ours unless they're cutting down the home delivery service?"

"No idea Angel. You can ask around in a bit. It would make an awesome way to get the cluster from one place to another. If we run a long USB extender we could keep the cluster in the lorry and tinker from in here. And we can take the refrigeration unit off the roof, put a generator there instead."

She passed the phone back, "We're all in need of more sleep. It's a refrigerated lorry which means there's a generator on the engine already. Keep the unit to keep the laptops cool otherwise they might cook in there. And forget painting it, peel it."

"Peel it?"

"It's already been wrapped, just rip it off."

Laura gestures to have the phone back, "This is exciting!" She taps and grins. "Sold to the ginger librarian. Bagsy do the peeling."

"Mum.."

"What?"

"Ginger librarian?"

"Have you catalogued any of the books and things yet?"

"Um.. no."

"You Dan?"

"Sorry, no."

"Well then. I'm the librarian."

Mattie puts her knife and fork together, "I'm done. Would you excuse me a second?"

"What's the rush?"

"I want to use some eyewash Mum, they're killing me."

"Oh, sorry, I'll clear away."

Daniel held her by the arm and guided her along the path towards the store. "You could have let me drive you over Angel."

"I'm getting used to the longer walk."

"Are they still hurting?"

"Yeah, the eye wash didn't help much." She kept her eyes closed, she could smell the fumes from all the cars and lorries stuck in the morning traffic jam. "It doesn't sound like the perfect home but I'd rather move my bed into the portacabin and wake up away from all these frigging pollution creators. I'm so glad my shift normally misses the worst of it."

"Fingers crossed everything works tonight. If than lorry is just a peel, we could get smart with a razor blade."

"Eh?"

"Carefully cut out the outline for the MLD logo and peel the rest off."

"Ha! Nice one Dan." She gives his arm a squeeze. "How far now? We're close right?"

"How could you tell?"

"I'm hearing cars crossing in front of us."

"You're right, the lights are due a change, be ready.'

The optician gave her a head tilt and odd look. "Matilda?"

"Hi Bill. First time you've seen me in a dress? I think I need glasses."

"You look good. What makes you think you need glasses?"

"My eyes are killing me."

"In what ways?"

"My reading distance is changing, they constantly hurt."

"Even if you close them?"

"Yes."

"You wake up with them hurting?"

"Yes."

Bill looks worried and turns to his desk, finds a card. "I don't think I can help, book an exam with the hospital's eye unit. Do it this morning."

"Bill?"

"This morning Matilda, please."

"Bill, you're scaring me."

"And what you're describing worries me. Go make the call please. Now." 

With tears flowing and hands shaking she takes Daniel's arm again and heads towards the exit. Her lip quivers. "Hospital? We all know how crap they are. Frigging butchers. Ever since the NHS was scrapped it's been a long downhill slide. I'm not going to a frigging hospital and pay to get sliced up like a joint of meat."

"But Angel, if your eyes are getting worse.."

"NO! Mattie's Fred is a surgeon. A world leading surgeon. We get the equipment working, get all the knowledge we can for him and let him check me out."

"You'd trust a synth you don't know over a human surgeon?"

"Human butcher. You've seen the scars patients leave with! This isn't an arm or leg we're talking about. This is my head! Fuck it. Turn me around, I'm signing off sick. Then take me to the pharmacist, I wan't all the pain killers that are safe to take at the same time."

With an expensive health service that everyone wanted to avoid unless they were on their death beds the pharmaceutical firms were doing fantastic business. In her world pain killer production was a multi trillion pound industry. Many died because they'd blocked out the pain that was trying to let them know something was seriously wrong.

"Matilda? What's up?"

Mattie kept her eyes closed and let the tears flow. "Hi, sorry, I'm going to have to sign off sick. My eyes are killing me."

"It's not a good time to do that Matilda, they're making cuts."

"You're saying they'd make me redundant?"

"Maybe."

"I quit."

"Angel?"

"I'm making another giant leap of faith Dan. Good luck Jemima. Pharmacy next please Dan."

He leads her back to the back of the store. "Bill's shaking his head, I suspect he knows what we know."

She keeps her eyes closed. "There is even more that we know and he doesn't know." She shakes his hand, "Trust in the Angels."

"Mats?"

"Hi Barbara. I need all the pain killers that are safe to take together."

"For yourself?"

"Yeah. My eyes are killing me. I'm going to get them fixed, need a stop gap."

"What's your budget?"

Daniel pulls out his wallet. "Name your price. Best products, least side effects, minimal addiction."

'Won the lottery have you sir?"

"With this lady, yes."

"He's a keep Mats."

"So my Mum keeps saying."

The pharmacist gets out a bag and starts pulling out little draws. "How long a prescription do you want?"

"A couple of weeks?"

They lady whistles, "If you've got the winning number for the next one let me know, I'll gladly take a share."

Daniel's eyes go wide when he sees the total being rung up. Thankfully her's were still closed and shedding tears. He puts a finger to his mouth as the lady goes to read it out and hands over his card. "That's fine, thanks."

[Chapter-8](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-8-1)


	8. Chapter 8

Daniel lets out a belly laugh as they get close to the house. "We should have phoned your mother with the razor blade idea."

"Why?"

"She's busy peeling already."

Mattie braved opening her eyes, the traffic was a bit lighter. After a few seconds she managed to focus. "Frigging hell! What is she wearing?" Her mother looked more like and old washer woman that a junior lawyer or librarian. Her hair was all inside a shower cap, her clothes were layered up and scruffy.

"It looks like she's raided a charity shop."

Matilda said nothing, she'd visited quite a few last year.

"Having fun Mum?"

"Mats! BRILLIANT FUN! Watch." She picks away at a bit of vinyl and pulls, gets a better grip and walks backwards. A nice two inch wide strip peels off diagonally from bottom to top."

"Wow."

"It's been pre-cut for easy removal. How often do they change the adverts on the delivery lorries?"

"Quite often actually. Cool. Can you stop, Dan's got an idea for leaving an MLD logo."

Daniel shakes his head, "Forget it for the moment, plain white will be best for now, less attention. Let's get you some water Angel, take a rest while they kick in. I'll set up everything inside the back, find a way to route a power feed in if there isn't one already. I'll get my stuff together and reflash one laptop here, I can do the rest on site. We're doing this and seeing Mattie today. Assuming she's not gone off somewhere. I want her Fred to give us a second opinion."

"So we'll do the first cluster test on site?"

"Yeah."

She gives him a long kiss. "Thanks. Having Mattie around will make me feel better."

[Chapter-9](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-9-1)


	9. Chapter 9

Her Fred had apologised, said eyes were the one thing he didn't cover yet. Mattie had asked about what her optician had done in the way of tests and was dismayed to hear nothing. She'd asked them to get on with the cluster and ran to Bart.

The Boots optician looked at Mattie's left eye through the prism and lens and sighed, "Mrs Elster-Hawkins, I can't help you if you're a synth. You need to visit Persona, not us."

"Pretend I'm a bag of bones. I have.. a friend.. in a different country where they have nothing like this. She's got a good friend that can make machines. I need to know what and how to use them. Fast. She's getting major head and eye ache."

"You want a crash course in how to do my job?"

"You'll be helping millions. The Angel Foundation will make a major donation to any charity you name."

"Millions? There's not a country on the planet that doesn't have access to these machines now."

"Trust me, there is. Okay she's on an island. Maybe tens or hundreds of thousands not millions?"

He sighs again, "What are her symptoms?"

"The worst is major pain in the eyes even after sleeping for hours."

He sucks in air, "Not good, not good at all. That could be an increase in pressure, it would be damaging the optic nerve and blood vessels supporting the retina."

"How would he check for that?"

"Swap chairs a moment."

The optician teaches her how to check the back of his eye, how to bend light onto the retina with the prism. He then describes the most probable causes.

"Thanks. How else would we know if it's glaucoma?"

"The puff test is the first test to do. Take a chair in front of this one."

"What does it do?"

"What the name says. It blows a tiny but fast puff of air at the centre of your eye, measuring the air bounced back. Have you seen the film Private Benjamin?"

"Yeah, one of Mum's favourites."

"Remember the coin bounce on the bed sheets? It's like that. The greater the pressure in the eye the tighter the surface gets, the more our puff will be reflected."

"Neat, I'm sure Daniel could build something, how would they calibrate it?"

"With difficulty. I wouldn't bother myself. Instead test a lot of people and see where your friend sits on the curve."

"Brilliant idea! Thanks!"

"You're welcome. I hope she recovers. It can lead to blindness quite quickly if not treated."

"Shit. How would you treat it?"

"Special eye drops. I've got some a patient doesn't need any more. I shouldn't but I'll let you have them, you can pass them on if it is eye pressure. Getting more to an island will be hard, the drops need to be kept in a fridge."

"Thanks. Why doesn't your patient need them?"

"His wife phoned in to say he'd passed away. Don't worry, natural causes and an NSC. The penny's dropped Doctor Elster-Hawkins."

Mattie taps the dash, "Wake up buddy!"

There's no reply.

"BART!"

"Yes Mattie?"

"Where were you?"

"Right here."

"I meant where were you mentally."

"Dreaming."

"Of?"

"Being a superbike."

"Should have guessed. Why a bike not a car? Actually don't answer that. Back to the estate please, fastest route possible. And get the team on the phone, I want a design on the table by the time we're back."

The team on Mattie's side had taken into account that he wouldn't have a build machine, no 3D printer. Inspiration was taken from another film favourite as they often did.

Toby had made the call on which. "Apollo 13. Miles away from earth. Make a solution with stuff that has a reasonable chance of being to hand!"

Joe had pushed his hair up into a floppy punk mohawk and grinned like a nutter, "Got it! A large speaker driver can push the air into a funnel."

George had smiled and nodded several times, "Music inspiration. I like it. A small flag on a record player stylus needle would be deflected by the puff of air being bounced back. Run it into an amp and have the output run into audio in, record it and check the signal with a bit of code."

Daniel threw his idea into the mix, "A different film, but use the triangulation of two lights Damn Buster style to judge how far it is from the front of the eye. It needs to be at the same distance every single test or the results are skewed."

Max unzipped his camera bag, "I have no idea if they have these in their world, but a rack for micro fine focusing on macro work would help."

"And if they don't?"

Joe did a quick sketch, "Some hardwood, three long machine bolts and a handful of hex nuts. Something like this."

"Sounds frigging awesome guys! Emily, can you get that into a series of BMP files please? Bart says we'll be back in twenty."

"Sure Mattie."

Mattie jumped out and ran up the factory steps, 'Emily, are you there?'

'It's all ready Mattie.'

'Awesome, thanks Ems.' A moment later the file is bumped.

"Matilda?"

"Mattie."

"How's your head?"

"Don't ask."

The puff test design transfer had to be slowed right down, Matilda was having problems receiving at the faster speed even with the pain killers. As soon as she opened the zip file and confirmed they'd got the file okay Dan drove away to get parts and get Mattie to bed to relax. He'd only got six laptop's chips reflashed, cluster testing would have to wait.

Late that evening Matilda washed her eyes in some salt water and tried not to cry. The pain was getting intolerable.

"Here you go Angel."

She takes the glass of water and pain killers, "Thanks Dan."

"Feel up for another visit?"

"Not today."

"Okay. I'll carry on building. Metalwork wasn't my thing, Dad's popping over to help out."

"Do you mind if we don't meet tonight, I'm a bit of a mess."

"Sure Angel, get back to bed."

[Chapter-10](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-10-1)


	10. Chapter 10

Daniel closed the door to hide the laptops and synths from his father. It wasn't that he didn't trust him, he just wanted him focused on the task in hand. His father would ask a mass of questions and get excited and distracted if he got to see them today. Laura was asked to keep quiet about them, not mention the books either.

The two men worked into the early hours getting the machine built, Laura providing regular cups of coffee.

Having watched his Angel compile C code a few times Daniel had an educated guess at what to do and got it all working. By 02:30 they had three recordings run through the C program. "Awesome! Thanks Dad."

"Glad to help son. Where'd you get the idea from?"

"It popped into Angel's head. Quite literally. She's very creative. Necessity is the mother of invention right?"

"I guess so. I better go, I've got to drive your mother to Brick Lane in the morning."

In the morning Dan got up early and took the device to Matilda's store, explained how she was getting worse and what they'd invented. He convinced most of the staff to sit in front of it for testing.

Bill eventually wandered over. "Daniel isn't it?"

"Yes Bill."

"How does this work?"

"It's a MLD trade secret."

"MLD?"

"Our new firm. Matilda, Laura, Daniel. We're also running a charity called The Angel Foundation."

"Who do what?"

"So far we've only helped some homeless people get through the cold snap with sleeping bags and gas stoves."

"That was you?"

"Yeah."

"Do you need anyone to operate this long term? I'm on the list."

"Redundancy?"

"They want to bring in a lad a third my age."

"Isn't that illegal?"

"Sure. It doesn't stop them, they'll make some excuse."

"We've got no money coming in yet, just a ton going out."

"Well when you do and if you need someone to help give me a call. It would be nice to end my days doing something helpful and not fob people off with low end eye tests."

"Low end?"

Bill looks around, "You didn't hear that from me okay?"

"Mum's the word. If you can put your head up against the rest. That's it. One moment while I adjust it. Okay, you'll have a short puff of air in four.. three.." it puffed.

"What happened to two and one?"

"I found people blink on one and ruin it. We're done."

"Don't you test both eyes?"

"Do you think I should?"

"You can take the average of the two. Tell you what, you run the machine, I'll get customers to join in. This country needs a new healthcare system, it's about time a firm with a good heart got a chance not all those money grabbers."

Daniel returned mid afternoon with hundreds of samples. "Angel, are you awake!"

There's a weak yes from upstairs.

He takes the stairs two at a time and knocks on her door. "Can I come in?"

'Sure."

He sets up the equipment and gives her a test. And another. And another. He then gets her to test him in case something had moved inside. His was no different to the one taken early morning. "Shit."

"What's up?"

"Get dressed, we're going to talk to Mattie."

"Why?"

"Sorry Angel, but yours is off the charts." He turns to face the door, "Laura! We're heading to the estate!"

[Chapter-11](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-11-1)


	11. Chapter 11

On getting the news Mattie made calls to the man she'd got the advice from.

"Matilda, I need you to go to the hospital and get an x-ray."

"No way! They're butchers!"

"X-ray. NOT treatment. We just want more data."

"Why?"

"Your eye pressure is way too high, we need to know why. Ask them to run blood tests too."

"Do you have any idea how much they cost?"

"Do you have credit cards?"

"Me no. Dan and Mum yes. But we've spend a load on them already."

"Do it. We'll come up with more quick win ideas. Things you can do in the UK."

"Okay."

After hours of waiting with dozens of other patients a receptionist calls her name and leads her to the x-ray room.

The nurse handed her a heavy apron. "Put this on please."

"Why? You're just xraying my head?"

"You don't want to harm your baby."

"WHAT!"

"Your blood tests came back, you're pregnant."

"Frigging hell!"

She stood still as the nurse moved the big x-ray machine up in front of her face. One night of passion in the tent and she'd already fallen? Crap.

The nurse steps outside for a second and triggers the machine, steps back inside. "On your paperwork it says you're single. You'll have child services on your case if I report the results while you're single. They're not a happy bunch."

"Bollocks. I've had a manager at the store tell me about them. Frigging Nazis."

"Is the father about? You could marry him in our chapel? Then I can correct the paperwork to say you're a couple."

"He hates things being forced on him."

"Don't we all. Take a seat outside, I'll have the film processed in a few minutes."

A few minutes turned out to be way more with emergency cases being given priority.

Dan got some water from the dispenser, smiled as nice a smile as he could muster.

"Laura, here you are."

"Thanks."

"Angel, how's the head?"

"The pain killers are wearing off."

"Want more?"

"I think I should stop taking them."

"Why?"

Tears flowed.

"Mats?"

"Angel?"

"I've got some news, not sure how you'll take it."

"What news, the x-ray hasn't come back? Oh please no, it's not bad is it?"

Mattie tried to smile and wiped tears on her jumper. "That depends on how you feel about starting a family."

Daniel jumps from his chair and spins around, sticks a hand in his pocket and gets down onto one knee. "Matilda Hawkins will you do me the honour of being my wife?" He holds out a ring.

Laura is jumping up and down in her seat in excitement.

"What the.. Have you been planning this?"

"Dad gave me a push. Said you were _the_ keeper." He opens the ring box to show a simple silver band with a tiny diamond. "Sorry it's not a big rock, I'll buy you something better when the money comes in."

"Did you know?"

"I suspected. Your weight should have been going down faster. Mum said Motherhood was one possible reason."

"Yes. The answer is yes!" After a moment she pulls a face. "No pressure, but there's a chapel here."

Laura jumps up, "At last! I get to be mother of the bride!"

"Mum!"

Just as they're about to do a group hug the nurse from the x-ray room appears with a consultant. "Matilda Hawkins, if we could have a moment please. Is this your mother and partner?"

"Yes."

"If you could all follow me please."

The man closes the door behind them. "There's no easy way to say this. So I'll let the picture say it." He shoves the x-ray into the clip above the light box.

Jaws drop. There was a big shadow right in the middle of the x-ray.

"Oh my God, Mats."

"Fuck."

Daniel jumps up. "How much do we owe you for the x-ray?"

"Matilda will need treatment immediately.."

"How much for the x-ray?"

"One hundred and twenty."

"For an x-ray? That's crazy. How do you justify that? Fuck it, take the money. Angel, Laura, go see the chaplain, I'll be along in a minute."

"Dan?"

"Laura, take Mattie now please."

"What? Oh, yes, right. Come on Mats."

Daniel pays for the x-ray and yanks it from the light box. "You'll have some competition soon. You should be ashamed of the way you rip people off."

He catches them up, "Our MLD letters, we can use the letters to set up something else. MDL is also in M e D i c a L.. Lets have a proper second wedding when your brother and sister can join in, lets do this and see Mattie PDQ. We need you getting as much info for Fred as possible."

"That thing was massive, he'd have to crack my head open."

"Didn't you listen to me read history.txt? He does pioneering keyhole surgery. Practically invisible scars."

Dan slipped the chaplain a few notes and explained that time was short, showed him the x-ray. The "I do." were done in record time and they were declared husband and wife.

Daniel gave Matilda a good long kiss. "Okay ladies, let's get to the lorry. We've got work to do."

As the new Mrs Candlin left with her husband Laura assured the chaplain that it really wasn't how it had sounded, Daniel was working hard to save Matilda.

Laura caught them up and congratulated them both again.

"Thanks Mum."

Daniel smirked, "I guess it means I can officially call you Mum too now Laura?"

"Laura is still fine by me."

At the site they find a portacabin dumped on the grass, deep grooves in the gravel from the lorry that had delivered it. With the grass sloped it sloped too.

"Bloody hell. Why couldn't they have called?"

"Don't worry Mum, I'll call Dad, see if the council have something that can help move it."

His wife was now in considerable pain, the tablets having worn off completely. 

"Mattie, are you there?" She looked at the x-ray and shakes.

"Hi Matilda, yes, are you okay? You don't sound very well?"

"I'm no expert but I think we know the cause of my eye problems, my x-ray shows something the size of an egg in my head. It looks like I've got a tumour."

"Oh shit. Sorry Matilda. There's only one thing for it."

"Fred?"

"Fred." 'I need Freddie here _now_ everyone!'

'I'm here Mattie.'

'Oh, sorry, thought you'd be at Sentinel.'

'Not with what the team described.'

'She's got a tumour the size of an egg. Their hospitals are butchers. We need to get the Fred in her world trained up.'

'Assuming they're as accurate as us, it should be possible. We'll get him to peel an egg.'

'A hard boiled egg?"

"No, raw. When he can remove the shell keeping the membrane and contents intact he's up to the job.'

'Thanks. Get creating a knowledge pack please Fred.' "Matilda, we'll be sending you info for your Fred ASAP. On the way home buy a load of eggs. Our Fred has a test for your Fred to do before he does surgery."

"Okay. He'll be doing keyhole Dan says?"

"Hopefully."

"What do you mean hopefully?"

"Has anyone done it yet? If not where will he get the surgical tools from?"

Matilda closed her eyes. "Shit."

[Chapter-12](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-12-1)


	12. Chapter 12

Daniel had spent his time on the laptops, got them all flashed. With help from Mattie they'd fixed the remaining issues and got it running. His wife had cried in even more pain as the backup software ran. It didn't work.

"What's wrong with it Mattie?"

"Maybe you're in too much pain? Got pain killers?"

"Yes but I don't want to take them incase they hurt the baby."

"You're pregnant?"

"Apparently. Now Mrs Candlin too."

"Congratulations! If Leo hadn't arrived when he did who knows, we might both have been Mrs Candlin. Thanks Fred. Time for the cap again, I'll send code that will let us use the helmet for the transfers. It won't be painful like backup mode."

"Promise?"

"I Promise."

Daniel gets everything ready for her. "Okay Angel."

"Nice and slow Mattie, my head's throbbing."

Just over half an hour later they had the code and switched to the helmet.

Fred, their composer, had come up with an ingenious plan, to encode the data so that it sounded more like instruments from an orchestra. Their spacial position became part of the encoding.

A bit under two hours later Matilda had several large files on the laptop. "Frigging hell. What this? Fredsurg.txt."

"Detailed surgeons notes on the anatomy of human beings, specifically related to the head, heart and lungs. Notes on the fabrication of tools that need to be built. And a document on synth fluid and skin pack manufacturing."

"Why those?"

"If Fred cuts himself he might bleed blue fluid."

"Okay."

"I've got a seriously large set of files to follow now. Feeling up to it? It might take all day and night."

"Even with the faster transfers?"

"Yes."

"Go on then. I've got a much longer cable so can reach the loo if needed."

Eighteen and a bit hours of half hour transmissions later Mattie stops transmitting. "That was the last one. David gave me a message to pass on, he and George suggest the synths get a transfusion of red fluid, they'd pass as human better if cut. And they'll need coloured contact lenses."

"Contact lenses?"

"Don't tell me you don't have contact lenses?"

"What are they for?"

"Eyes. What else?"

"Sorry. Glasses or nothing."

"Frig. Okay, we'll get a design for those too. Maybe that's your UK quick win."

On getting the news and design Daniel phoned the store and asked to speak to Bill, asked if he'd like a new job. He'd have to work on commission until enough money came in to give him a regular salary. Bill accepted. Minutes later Daniel was phoning his father asking if he knew anyone that had precision milling machines for hire.

As Matilda was going to call it a day Mattie asked to send one more small file. Something for Mia. It unzipped to show a single file called eatmecak.txt. A recipe.

"Who's that ultimately for Mattie?"

"You Matilda. It will give you a lot of healthy minerals. They're yummy too. We call them Eat Me cakes. I think it's time you powered up the family."

"Okay, wish me luck."

"Good luck Matilda, I'll be thinking of you. If you need anything else come say hello."

"Thanks Mattie."

"WAIT! My Fred has a question for you!"

"Okay?"

"One sec.. Do you have all the boxes of tablets with you?"

"Yes."

"Do they have information on the active ingredients?"

"No idea. I'll ask Dan to read them for me. I expect the print would be too small."

"Okay, I'll wait."

Matilda looked at her husband, "It's time."

Fred had talked to Gesha, she'd said Matilda should stop using two, the rest were safe to use.

The laptops were all shutdown, the refrigeration unit turned off. "Okay now Angel?"

"It's still there but the edge has been taken off. It's more of a dull ache than a pain. Let's go home."

On the way he called his father, asked if the portacabin move could take a back seat, the milling machine was the higher priority, they had work to do. His father said some friends were already heading to the estate, asked if he needed to call them off.

Laura thanked him, asked if it could be located inside the boundary of the ruins, the foundations were strong and level.

Daniel panicked for a second when he turned to see his wife slumped sideways against Laura.

"Don't worry, she's just sleeping Dan. I can feel her breathing."

"Thank Gods. She had me worried."

At home he has to wake her up to get her inside. "Let's wake the family."

She was groggy and not feeling great, "I need sleep Dan."

"And we need Fred. Give us fifteen and you can sleep on the sofa."

"Okay."

The synths laptops are powered up, the history document loaded. Laura adds a welcome paragraph at the top of each with their name to make it more personal.

Daniel stood between Fred and Max, a hand by each chin. "Ready Laura?"

"Ready."

"On one. Four, three, two, one."

A sound played as the four synths powered up.

Mia frowned and opened her eyes first, looked panicked. "Where am I!"

Laura placed a hand on hers, "Safe Mia, you're safe."

She looked around to see the smiling human, her fellow synths looking around totally confused. "Who are you?"

"A friend. Laura Hawkins. This is my daughter Matilda and her friend Daniel."

Fred looks down at the laptop. "When are we?"

Daniel places a hand gently on his shoulder, "2031 Fred, we found you all in the ruins of the building on the Elster estate."

Niska looks most confused, "We survived? How do you know our names?"

Matilda rubs her temples, "You did. This is all going to sound unbelievable, but maybe no more than a human in synthetic body. Read the document on your laptops, we'll do our best to answer any questions you have."

Fred scrolls through the pages in seconds. "You're asking us to put a lot of faith in something that sounds impossible."

"You've read all of it already?"

"Yes. I'm a synthetic." He smiles warmly.

Matilda goes to the living room, gets her laptop and the helmet. "This was invented by David Elster." A yawn is allowed to escape. "Sorry. In Mattie's world David and Leo are now synths too. There's millions of you."

Niska stands, "It's all lies!"

"I can assure you it's not."

"Prove it."

"Which bit?"

"All of it!"

"Frigging hell Niska, that's like asking us to prove our Gods exist!"

Max looks up at his sister and smiles, "Maybe we should give them a chance? I have a full charge. My systems feel okay."

Matilda rests on the table, "None of you are prisoners here, you're free to go if you wish. I would really appreciate it if you didn't though, I could really do with your help, especially from Fred."

"Why?"

"I need your surgery skills. Alt Fred sent another file for you, he has a test for you to perform." She gets the x-ray from the shelves, "This is doing me in. In this world surgeons are currently no better than butchers."

"How do I access it?"

She shows him the file.

"I need this transferred directly to my file system." He reaches down and feels the charge cable, looks at where it's snaking off to. "The other end will need to connect to this computer."

Daniel races to another room.

"He's probably getting his iron and collection of plugs."

With some help from Fred and the diagram the end is changed to a USB3 plug.

Fred connects it, "I'll shut down, if you could copy it to the root of my file system please Mia."

With some help from Matilda, Mia gets it done and Fred reboots. He looks at his hands in amazement. "These hands have saved lives. I can _feel_ it."

Matilda looks up at Niska, "If everything we said and showed you was a lie how could we possibly know how to fake that? There's no skin packs in this world yet, we couldn't have opened you up and looked inside, you'd be leaking fluid by the gallon."

Niska sits back down. "I'm really nicknamed The Ninja? And The Commander? Expert in martial arts?"

"In their world, yes. We could probably have Mattie send a fact pack for you too. For all of you. Mia's a great cook with her own show. Max's a photographer and man of the cloth."

Niska scrolls back through the document. "I'd like to go back."

"To the site?"

"Yes."

Laura shifts her weight and smiles at Mia, gives Niska a frown, "We've got all of the books here, if you wanted to look something up?"

"I want you to ask David a question. Something no book or your document has covered."

"And what's that?"

"Why."

"Because I'm curious."

"You misunderstand me. My question is why."

"Travelling in the lorry wouldn't be very comfortable."

Laura steps close to Mia and stares into her eyes, "We can get a large taxi. Dan, the coloured contact lenses were to disguise the synths right?"

"Yeah."

"What if we flip that?"

"I don't follow you?"

"No human wears them yet, they haven't officially been invented yet. What if MLD made them _only_ in one colour. This green. You could say the four of them were testing the new idea."

Daniel grabs her by the shoulders and plants a kiss on her lips. "To borrow Matilda and Mattie's word that's Frigging Awesome! Who wants to be our poster person?"

Matilda stands, "The store is still open, we could borrow some glasses. We'd just need to carefully edit the eye colour in the glasses shot. We could set up a web site tonight. Then if anyone questions it we show it to them on our phone. Nice one Mum!"

Laura blushes a little, "I'll go get some glasses."

Fred picks up the x-ray, "I'll need some very specialist tools."

[Chapter-13](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-13-1)


	13. Chapter 13

The web site was built, Niska got to ask her question of David and was satisfied that they were being told the truth.

All thoughts of traveling to America were put on hold, they had a far less expensive option to pursue now. The machine for moulding contact lenses was made, Fred became their chemist too. Slowly and steadily a few local people's eyes started going the beautiful synth green.

The MLD logo was kept the same shape, the colour matched to the synth green on white. Alt Danny's charge coil was made next allowing the four to get free of a cable. It was amazing what could be done in five weeks when you threw all your time and effort at it.

A 3D printer design followed which got Daniel rather excited. As his enthusiasm grew his wife's fell. With each visit to site Matilda found it harder and harder to receive the transmissions from Mattie.

Slowly and steadily Fred found firms to make the tools to make the surgical instruments he needed.

Then out of the blue Matilda threw them a curve ball. She didn't want surgery until their baby was born. There was to be nothing that put the baby's life at risk. Daniel tried to convince her that the tumour was likely to be growing, it would be causing more damage. She wasn't having any of it. The babies life came first despite her failing eyesight.

Six months into the pregnancy Daniel had had enough. "Laura, can we talk please? Before I drive the Elsters to site." His whisper made it clear he wanted to talk in private.

"Come out front, she won't hear us there."

They step outside.

"Bill's been speaking to Fred and the optician we found on Matilda's phone. If we let her delay any more she'll never recover."

"What are you suggesting we do?"

"Mia's made a concoction that will bring on premature labour. If you agree Fred's going to be building an artificial womb to keep the baby warm and safe."

"Bloody hell."

"With the baby out Fred'll be able to operate on Mats and get the tumour out before it kills her eyes. Or kills her all together."

"If anyone lets slip what we've done she'll never forgive us."

"That's certain. But she's adamant that she goes full term. I honestly don't think she'd make it, we'd risk losing them both."

"She's otherwise healthy right?"

"Yeah, my diet plan and Mia's Eat Me cakes have kept the rest of her good, it's just her head that's messed up. Fred's instruments are good, his volunteering at a vets has proved he can use them fine."

Laura's shoulders drop as she does a long drawn out exhale. "Do it. Let's tell Mia together."

Mia gave Laura a gentle hug, "I promise we'll do everything we can to keep them in the best of health."

Laura looked at Fred, "How many days will it take to build the machine?"

"One or two. It's relatively simple."

"Please start."

The following morning at 04:11 Matilda screamed. She was going into labour and bleeding, her water had broken. Daniel let Laura and Mia take over. Niska ran a warm bath and threw in a number of things to make it as like amniotic fluid as possible. Mia shouted an order to Fred and head bumped, pretending to give instructions for the contraption already started. "Go Fred! Get building! FAST!"

The baby was tiny and came out easily. Mia gently wrapped it in a dark towel and kept it under the water.

"It can't breathe!"

Mia smiled as reassuringly as possible, "It's not using it's lungs yet. It's still taking oxygen from the umbilical cord. As long as we can get oxygenated blood pumping through it she'll live."

"She?"

"Yes Matilda, you have a daughter."

"Holy moly. I'm officially a Mum." She bursts into tears overwhelmed with emotions.

Laura rolled her sleeves up, "Which makes me Grandma. Bloody hell. At long last. Well done Mats."

Mia turns to her, "Laura, can you get Fred back to the landing please? Urgently, we need to have a way to oxygenate blood."

Fred returned soon after, head bumped through the closed door. 'I wasn't expecting this to happen so fast. I'm not ready.'

'Get creative!'

"I have an idea. I'll need a car."

Laura looked up at the door, "Get Daniel to drive you."

They could hear Fred running and shouting for Daniel. A moment later there was a horn sound and the screaming of tyres.

Mia smiled again, "They understand the urgency."

In only six minutes there was the sound of heavy feet on the stairs. "Can I come in please?"

Matilda nods, "If he's going to help fix my head, seeing me like this isn't going to bother me."

"Come in Fred!"

He enters holding two long tubes, each with a very fat syringe needle attached to the ends.

"Frigging hell! What the.."

"The local vet helped. They think I'm working on saving a foal. Matilda, can you get out of the bath and dry the top of your legs please, sit on the edge of the bath."

He pushes her legs apart a little and finds the major artery near the groin. "Keep very still please."

With the pain killers in effect she felt the prick of the needle but not the pain. He slid the needle into the artery. Blood rapidly filled the tube. He held it high so air could escape then plugged the end with a thumb. It was lowered into the bath and inserted into the placenta. He took the second tube and repeated the operation from placenta back to her groin. "This is only temporary while Daniel and I build the machine. Try not to move at all, I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Not at all?"

"Keep those pipes in place, you'll lose a lot of blood if they come out. Laura, can you get a cushion for Matilda please?"

Fred runs back down stairs. Their's a tyre screech again as the lorry leaves the drive.

Matilda looks at Mia, "What did you tell him?"

"That you need a way to be able to move around too. You don't want to be stuck in here for months."

" _Months_!"

"Relax, all is in hand."

Matilda's hands shake, her legs start to shake too. Shock was setting in.

Mia takes both hands in hers, "Close your eyes and think of your favourite things."

[Chapter-14](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-14-1)


	14. Chapter 14

It's a while before they hear the lorry parking in the drive. "Thank God, my bum's going way past numb."

They hear the footsteps of two people on the stairs.

"Angel, can we come in?"

"Sure."

Daniel is carrying a two gallon pickle jar and rucksack.

"YOU ARE FUCKING KIDDING ME!"

"Angel, calm down, it's only for a few hours while Fred and I finish building the machine! Would you rather stay in here?"

"No. I need to move. And use the loo."

"Well then. Fred's got some tape to hold the tubes in place on your leg."

"Send him in."

Able to use the toilet on her own she called Daniel in after flushing. "Do we have any safety pins?"

"No. I can get some?"

"Could you? I want to get dressed and these bloody tubes will be in the way. I'll need to cut some knickers."

"Okay. Anything else?"

"Yeah. I really fancy a Nandos."

"Okay. I'll be back in a tick."

Laura came in and asked how she was.

She shrugged, "Glad my little pickle is alive. I wish it wasn't like this though." She goes to open the canvas rucksack.

Laura stops her, "Mia said we should keep it in the dark, it's eyes are still developing. We should only look at her with a soft red light."

Mattie huffed, "Somewhere in the house is a box from my flat's loft with my old blackout curtains. Can someone find them?"

Max volunteered to go into the loft when they couldn't find the box downstairs. He returns with the curtain and a two wheeled skate-board. "Does his belong to you Matilda?"

"Um.. Yeah. I could never get the hang of it. If you can it's yours. Just make sure you have your transfusion before you get on it, you don't want to be leaving something other than red on the ground."

"Thank you Matilda, I shall practice only on safe surfaces."

Daniel returns to find blackout curtains covering the dining room table. "What's going on?"

"Mum and I are looking at our daughter. She's so cute!"

"Can I come in?"

"Is Mia there?"

"I'm here Matilda." She helps get Daniel under the curtain with minimal light getting in.

It takes a while for his eyes to adjust. Matilda had her phone displaying a pure red image with the brightness turned down low.

"She's beautiful Angel!"

"She is. I can't wait to hold her."

Daniel gets closer still, "So what are we going to call our little pickle?"

"Did you hear me saying that earlier?"

"Pickle? Yeah, just."

Laura smiled, "You said Holy Moly, how about Holly Molly?"

"Alt Toby's wife is Holly Anne. I like Molly though."

Dan kisses his wife, "Molly it is then."

Matilda goes to move to get comfortable forgetting the life support tubes. The dressing came unstuck and one syringe comes out sending a jet of blood spraying against the inside of her dress. "Shit shit shit! FRED! HELP! Dan, I've lost a pipe!" He applied pressure while Laura got Molly back in the bag.

Fred was there in seconds and kinked the tube as air was about to enter the bag. "Curtains away please! And get me some clean towels and the tape!"

The incident left Matilda shaken and unwilling to move anywhere without the two men present. As they wanted to work outside that left her stranded on the sofa. Her mood got progressively darker as the hours ticked by. As Laura was starting dinner Fred and Daniel came in from the garden with their invention in a bin bag.

Fred went to the kitchen cupboard and got out the salt. "We'll be back soon, we need to sterilise this as much as possible."

Laura shook her head, "With salt? Let me get something from the shops. Clearly none of you have been mothers to a new borne baby before."

While she was gone Fred gives Mattie a talk through their invention. He'd found materials that when layered together acted like a one way membrane allowing oxygen in but no blood or blood plasma out. A set of three motors each turned a drum with five rollers. They pushed against tubing forcing fluid to move along it. A series of powerful UV lamps would kill anything airborne that might be a problem..

"Isn't this how a dialysis machine does it's pumping?"

"It is. It's simple and no blood has to touch the motor parts. We have three parallel tubes join into the main one so that one motor running on it's own can keep the blood flowing. We can power each from a different source. Mains or battery like us. And three motors gives us some redundancy."

"Neat. But won't the blood die off quickly?"

"Blood cells live for three months. Rather than be hooked up to this permanently you could do it for a few hours a day. That way baby gets fresh blood and nutrients. We'd need to do a better job with the artery taps. I could design something for that."

"Thanks Fred. Molly says thanks too." She hugs the bag.

"You're welcome, Matilda and Molly. I'm ready to perform your surgery."

"What?"

The front door clicks locked.

"Now Molly isn't in your womb there's no risk to her. I've been ready for a few weeks.."

"I'll keep taking the eye drops."

"The eye drops have done nothing for you."

"But.."

Laura handed Daniel a bag, "You need this now before you lose your eyesight all together Mats."

"No.."

Daniel stood arms crossed and angry. "Don't be such a bloody martyr, that thing is _killing you_ and it needs to come out. What would I say to Molly when she's old enough to understand? _Sorry Mol, your mother is blind because she wouldn't let Fred operate. Or worse, she's dead!_ "

"I'm frightened! I might die!"

"Even more likely if you do nothing!"

The tears flow again, "I. MIGHT. DIE! Who's going to give her fresh blood?"

"Me. The placenta buffers her own system from yours. You don't share the same blood."

"She still needs me.."

"You're not fucking listening! I don't want to be a single parent! It's not a responsibility thing, I'll move the earth for Molly if I have to, I want _you_ to be there sharing the experiences with us! That won't happen if you're six foot under or blind! WAKE THE FUCK UP MATILDA!"

The outburst was unexpected and send her mind reeling. She tried to pull her knees up to her chest but couldn't because of the tubes. She grabbed the blanket and lay down sideways, covered herself up and cried.

Laura sat with head in hands, "Go clean your machine Dan."

"Talk to her please Laura."

"Just go!"

[Chapter-15](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-15-1)


	15. Chapter 15

The two different worlds would now share something else in common. Matilda and Mattie being operated on in a vets. Mattie had her twins ripped from her womb by an evil Hobb. Matilda was getting her tumour removed. Fred had picked the lock and let them in. Mia and Niska were nurses for the evening, ready to hand Fred anything he asked for.

It had taken four days for Matilda to come around to their way of thinking. The thing that made her mind up was admitting to herself that she couldn't see her own daughter properly, everything was far too blurred even with the best glasses Bill could find.

She gripped Daniels hand tight as the general anaesthetic was injected. "No backup remember."

"I remember. You'll be able to take one in a few days."

"Tell Molly I love.." she was under.

"Okay Daniel, if you could wait outside please."

"I want to stay."

"You're okay with the site of blood?"

"Yeah. And I want to be here should anything go wrong. This is the first human you're working on. With new instruments."

"Sort of. I've used them in the alternate world. I have the other Fred's memories remember. Razor please Niska."

The second worst bit for Daniel was watching Fred pull his wife's ear forward, cut and pull skin aside. The worst was the noise of a reciprocating saw cutting through bone.

Fred glanced up for a split second, 'Don't panic, this is standard practice, the new bit for human surgery will happen shortly."

Daniel watches as three more cuts are made and a small square of bone is pulled away. It's dropped into a sterile saline solution. Fred looks through his magnifying visor and nods. "The snake please Mia."

"What the fuck.."

Fred smiles, "You would not believe the problems I had finding the right expertise to get this made. Plug me in please."

Mia reaches through the back of his gown and connects a cable. Fred closes his eyes and moves the thin contraption closer to the opening in Matilda's head.

"Whoa! Stop!"

"What's wrong?"

"You've got your eyes closed for one!"

"No I don't."

"Don't take the piss! I can see their closed."

Fred raises the snake, "Hold your breath." He brings it close to Dan's eye. "I can see you have your eye open. Hum if you can see mine!"

Dan hummed an Oh My God! Snake lowered he breathes out. "You put a microscopic camera on there?"

"Yes. A chip from your phone technology. Now if you'd let me get on."

"Sure."

Fred feeds the snake slowly into Matilda's head. "The brain is an interesting organ. You can think of it as a large and thick oatmeal pancake that's been carefully folded to fit in a small space. It's quite fragile, the consistency of cold porridge. Increase the fluid rate please Niska. The snake head can be steered, I'm guiding it around the folds to get closer to the tumour. That way I'll disrupt as little as possible, she should suffer minimal memory loss if any at all."

"How do you get the tumour out? It was way bigger than that square you cut out and.."

"You have a saying. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. The snake will eat it bit by small bit. There's a tiny tube that runs to the end by Niska, the tumour cells will flow from there. We'll collect a few for checking under the microscope, ensure it's not the type to spread."

"How long will this take?"

"More fluid please Niska. Another few seconds to reach the site, then it can start working. I hope to be out of here in under two hours."

"Awesome." Dan watches patterns being drawn on the ceiling by car headlights. "They don't do emergency call out here do they?"

"Their partner site does. Which is why I picked this one."

"Thank God."

"Which one? You believe in more than one don't you?"

"It depends."

"On?"

"It's a long story for another time."

"Okay. A tiny bit more on the flow rate please Niska. What's her vital signs like please Mia?"

"They're good."

"A few more millimetres.. I'm there." He starts moving his jaw open and closed.

"You've got the thing linked to your senses? Is that why you were talking through your teeth?"

"Yes. Ever so slight suction on the tube and a tiny bit more flow please.. that's enough!"

Daniel peered into the container as pure white cells started to flow. "Amazing. You're a life saver Fred."

"As you are too Daniel. If the two of you hadn't rescued us from the Estate who knows what we'd be doing now. We could still be there or being dismantled for study."

"Not a nice way to go. On that subject, do you know what sort of CPU you have inside your heads?"

"We do. It's nothing like the ones you know. David had something custom built. Is it important?"

"No, I was just curious. We've got a mass of micro-controller chips but for some reason CPU chips are stuck at stupidly overclocked i386."

"No their not."

"They are."

"I think you'll find they're not. Your governments are just keeping them to themselves."

"What!"

"You use Lycos?"

"Yes."

"What if it was only indexing a fraction of the servers? Just the ones the governments wanted you to see." Fred's mouth continues to open and close.

"Is it what if or do you actually know?"

"Would it be worth something to you?"

"To the whole blooming planet!"

"Then I know."

"How?"

"By ignoring robots.txt. And before your mind starts to panic instructions from Mattie included how to start this worlds dark web. Good, the tumour is clearing nicely. No sign of an artery running through it unlike the police dog I worked on, that, as you would describe it, was a nightmare."

"It was hard to cut away?"

"That was easy. Faking a human's fatigue from being on my feat for eleven hours, that was difficult."

"Wow. Eleven hours! What was your charge like afterwards?"

"dangerously low."

"How did you use it? Surely they have noticed?"

"I had the camera linked to a display instead, it slowed me down tremendously. I think Matilda's started small and pushed everything out of the way as it grew. Hence the pressure on her eyes."

[Chapter-16](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-16-1)


	16. Chapter 16

Daniel breathed a huge sigh of relief when Fred starts slowly pulling the snake out. "Done?"

"Done. Just a few titanium screws to hold the bone in place while it grows back, a few nice stitches and we can run. Keep the flow steady please Niska.. and.. we're out." He opens his own eyes and smiles. "If you could clean and bag it please. Screws and screwdriver please Mia." They're in within seconds. He removes the spreader tool and pulls her ear and skin back into place. "Suture kit please Mia."

A dressing applied Fred asks Daniel to carry her to the car while they clean up and set the alarm.

The drive home wasn't long, she was coming around by the time Daniel carried her inside.

She giggles, "I feel drunk. Carry me over the threshold again Dan my man." He does so. "Again, again."

"My arms are tiring."

"Are you saying I'm heavy?"

"No." He does it a third time. "You need to get on the sofa and rest. Max has been watching over Molly, Mia and Niska will take turns to watch over you both.

Laura hands him a drink, "It went okay?"

"Yeah, Fred's flipping awesome. The world has been waiting too long for a man with his skills."

"Thank you Daniel."

He turns to face him, "For what?"

"Calling me a man."

"You're welcome."

Matilda is sound asleep in minutes, a hand resting on the side of Molly's life support.

"Fred, your snake design, could we hook the camera up to a USB port?"

"I would have thought so."

"Awesome. Another thing we can do in the UK."

Four hours later Mattie wakes and slowly sits up, smiles at Mia. "God you're beautiful!"

Mia gives her a frown and subtle smile. "Thank you. As too are you Matilda."

"Maybe. But I'd not seen you properly until now."

"You can see better?"

"The best I've seen in years. Where's Fred?"

"Outside with Daniel."

"Does your head thing work over distances?"

"Meters not kilometres."

"Can you call them in please?"

Mia looks away for a second, looks serious then looks back and smiles, "They're coming."

Fred gets a really long hug of thanks.

Daniel took them all out for lunch, the synths sat and talked, pretended that they'd just been to another restaurant before bumping into the others. He looked around to check the waitress was out of earshot. "You've read the files. How do you fancy the food processor mod?"

They all nod, "If it can be built."

"Yeah, I'm going to make the 3D printer, print parts and do castings from them. The electronics is simple. How'd you upgrade yourself Fred?"

"Proxy via one of the others."

Later that evening Daniel finds Laura in the garden sitting with Matilda's cat Leo, having a smoke. "Hi Laura. She's up again and a lot more with it, want to come in?"

She takes another good drag on the cigarette, pauses then exhales, "How's her mood?"

"Pretty upbeat. The pain in the eyes has gone and she can see properly."

Laura stubs her cigarette out and drops it into an empty flower pot with all the other stubs.

Matilda smiles at her mother as they enter the living room, "Niska has kindly offered to do Molly watch duty while we go say hello to Mattie."

"You want to go now?"

"Yes."

"Will she be in?"

"No idea."

"I think we should wait until the morning. Or the weekend."

"I want to share the news."

"I know you do darling but it's a long drive and you've only just had surgery. Give it a few days."

She puffs up her cheeks and blows. "Okay. First thing Saturday then okay?" Dan is given a look.

"Sure Angel, early Saturday."

"Thanks. I'm going to get compiling the CAD system then. I'm starving, couldn't put some eggs on could you?"

Daniel found a tiny LCD monitor on Gumtree being sold locally, made some lenses with the contact lens plastic mix and made his wife a makeshift VR headset. "How's it looking?"

"Frigging awesome if a simple grid is saying it's working." She feels for the USB microphone on the table. "Let's see if it responds." It's brought up to her mouth. "Hello computer." The cluster nodes in the lorry outside lit up as traffic flooded the USB bus.

"Hello."

"Frigging hell Dan! It works!"

"It's from Mattie, would you expect anything less?"

"Guess not. Computer load CAD model."

"Which model would you like loaded? Please specify."

"The factory please."

Nothing happens.

"Computer please load the factory model." A progress bar appears and goes from 0 to 100 in a couple of seconds. "FRIGGING HELL! Dan you've got to see this!"

"I can Angel, it's on the master laptop display too. It's huge! How do you move around?"

"No idea. Computer describe navigation commands."

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't understand your instruction. For help options please say help and the subject name or help index for a list of options."

"Computer help index."

Daniel found a Y splitter cable so they could run a small speaker as well as the headphones. They spent the next hour and a half listening to all of the help data and training material.

"Do help setup again Angel."

"Computer help setup."

He listens to all the options. "Help search url." He steps closer to Matilda. "Computer set search url to http://lycos.co.uk/"

"URL set."

"Computer search online for images of coffee mugs."

They both do a "Whoa!" as a virtual web browser pops up and starts rendering images of coffee mugs.

"Frigging hell!"

"Computer load fifth image and extrapolate 3D model... whoa! Angel I'm off to talk to Dad, see what bits we can take from dumped electrical goods to build a 3D printer. Have fun!" He kisses her neck, the visor covering her face and cheeks.

"Stay a few minutes can't you?"

"Okay."

"Computer take us to the lift. Computer open the lift doors. Computer take us to minus one. Computer open the lift doors. Computer take us to the sixth door on the left. Computer open door and enter room."

"Whoa! That's a bed and a half!"

"Like it? There's detailed CAD plans to build everything you've seen."

"We don't have an army of military synths to built the factory, it could take us years."

"Computer close model and load construction engineer."

"What the.."

"Good eh? She said it's very dumb by their standards, worse than the first Odin whatever that was, but can do basic digging, panel and rebar work for concrete pouring. There's a basic C program for it, it would become an agent of the CAD system cluster, like a bee worker drone."

Daniel covers his mouth with a hand, stares at the monitor for a while. "Tools to build tools to build tools and things. That's why their Daniel had her send the 3D printer design and instructions. Holy shit. They've given us everything to jumpstart a revolution!"

Matilda pulls up the headset and grins, " _Now_ go see your father. Take Fred along with you, he seems quite handy with tools. Oh and take Mum along, get your parents to sign an NDA."

"Is that necessary?"

"We've all signed documents, they should too if they're to join us."

"You want them on the staff?"

"I'm sure Mattie would, why not us? The four Elsters are."

"Okay, I'll drag grandma away from smokers corner."

[Chapter-17](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-17-1)


	17. Chapter 17

Danny's design was for the physical printer and had two options depending on what types of motors they could source. It explained how in their world a controller board would sit between PC and printer and do the hard work. As he had no idea if the same chips were available they had a virtual controller that would run on the laptop. Daniel would need to make a power board to convert signals output by the code into motor and heater controls. Heavily commented code let him work with Matilda to define which software signal mapped to which of a number of pins on his prototype board.

"Most of my work friends would be at the pub on a Friday night." He flicked the power switch and fans and LED indicators came on. "It's a good job I'm not a beer drinker. Okay. The instructions say to home it first."

Matilda clicked the icon that looked like a house. The print head stepped downwards and smacked into the print bed, the drive motors made a racket as they tried in vein to drive it through the polished metal base.

"Crap." The power is removed. "I think it should have gone up not down. Home is supposed to be out of the way so you can get the print off the base. Sod it. It can wait, let's have an early night and watch a movie while Molly's machine gets a transfusion. I'll work on it during the week."

They go to the living room, thank Mia for keeping an eye on the machine. Daniel throws a switch to turn off the mains and another to turn on battery power.

Mia frowns slightly, "Do you have a UPS?"

"We have, why?"

"Why don't you use it?"

"For what?"

"To keep the motors going."

Daniel rubs his forehead, "How can the United Parcel Service help?"

"Oh. David built a device he called a UPS. Uninterruptible Power Supply. One power feed in, an internal battery and one power feed out. I don't know how it worked inside, maybe one of the others overheard details? I do know from a power cut that an alarm sounds and it provides power from the battery while the mains is down."

"Blimey. Finding you lot was a gift from the Gods! Where are the others?"

"In the garden talking to Laura."

Max had overheard a description David gave a young Leo. He looked sad at the thought of his big brother being dead. "A circuit turns mains into twenty four volts that trickle charges a pair of batteries, it also feeds an inverter. If the mains fails the inverter draws power from the battery."

"Awesome!"

"He also said a number of diodes protect it against current flowing the wrong way. He didn't elaborate further, sorry."

Daniel pats his shoulder, "Max that's brilliant! Gods why has nobody thought of this before? I know you want to get to site early Angel, mind if we swing by the shops so I can get parts? I can prototype a circuit while you talk to Mattie. A UPS would be great for protecting the laptops but more importantly one could help keep Molly safe."

"As it's for Molly, sure."

He carefully carries the machine upstairs and gets it back to mains power.

"Dan, what if mains fails while we're sleeping and the Elsters are downstairs?"

"Um, that would be a problem. I've got a relay and loud buzzer in my come in handy box, I'll get my tools and do a quick mod. Pick a film and get comfortable."

Daniel went to his small wooden shed and took off the padlock. He really needed something bigger that he could work from. His tools were all kept in the spare room in the past, now Laura had developed an annoying habit of clearing things away before he'd finished a job. He suspected she was missing being in her own home.

The relay and buzzer were in a box just where he expected them to be. This was his tiny man cave after all. The big spider that came running out of the box when he picked it up was a shock and unwelcome visitor. "Nasty fucker! Go away!"

Tool kit grabbed he heads back indoors. The cat. He better close the shed door before Leo got in and knocked everything off the shelves catching spiders. Hmm. Maybe Leo could help clear the things out. It loved crunching on spiders.

Back upstairs he finds Matilda sat up against a stack of pillows.

"Who were you telling to go away?"

"A massive spider in the shed."

"Don't let Mum see them, she's got a phobia."

"Okay. What did you pick?"

"An old old classic, something funny. Airplane!"

"Class! I've not seen that in _years_."

The lid to the switch box was removed after he set it back to battery mode and disconnected the mains lead. He'd had enough near fatal shocks, didn't plan on getting any more. A few lengths of wire were cut and soldered while the film played.

Matilda grinned at him as he soldered one of the wires onto the mains terminals inside, "Nervous?"

"Yes. Very."

"First time?"

"No, I've been nervous lots of times." He chuckles, "It never gets old. So many great gags in that one."

A few dabs of glue are put on the relay's cover and it's stuck head down into the box. It's wiggled gently a few seconds later to see it's stuck properly. With a bradawl he makes a small hole in the lid, passes the two wires for the buzzer through and solders them in place on the relay terminals. The rest of the wire ends are soldered on, he toggles the mains switch on the lid. The buzzer comes on. As soon as the mains plug is pushed back into the wall it stops. "Fantastic." With the mains plugged pulled and buzzer sounding the lid is quickly pushed back into position and screwed down, the plug pushed back in cutting the racket from the buzzer. A few drops of glue hold the buzzer in place on the lid. "Done!"

"Was Molly at risk during any of that?"

"No way."

"Sure?"

"With the motors geared with a heavy flywheel they take a while to slow down and stop. I'd have flipped battery back on if it slowed too much."

"Is that why it's so heavy?"

"An extra couple of pounds I think."

Matilda pats the bed, "Come snuggle up."

He gets on the bed properly and gives her a kiss. "Temperature regulation failing is the shrill noise, mains power the lower frequency buzz."

"Got that."

"Do you talk to her much?"

"Talk to her? All the time when I'm not with you."

"Why not with me?"

"Because we're usually making the future."

"Hmm. True. We need a day off." He watches the pilots in the film at the controls. "Hmm."

"Another Hmm?"

"I used to have a flight simulator years ago when I was a boy. Remind me to do a computer help setup control tomorrow. I might be able to make something to steer you around the CAD system."

"Like what?"

He holds both hands out in front. "How about a steering wheel you can pull back or push forward? That would let you steer and move at the same time."

"And how do I hold the microphone?"

"We stick that to the visor somehow. How's your ear?"

"Fine, there's a lot of swelling but it's not hurting too much." She rearranges the pillows and wriggles down the bed, is asleep before the film ends.

"Goodnight Molly, Daddy loves you."

[Chapter-18](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-18-1)


	18. Chapter 18

In early spring while on site Daniel mentions his metal garage ideas. He wanted to construct one at the end of the garden to make himself a bigger man cave to tinker in. Instead, at the suggestion of his father, they accepted a lot of shipping containers. The recycle centre had been asked to use a plasma cutter to dismantle a dozen of them to recycle as scrap metal. The team instead helped ship them to the estate, used the plasma cutter to make holes. Fred and Max helped Daniel fit basic windows and doors, put flooring in, plasterboard on the walls. They ran power cables from a series of poles to run small heaters and power Molly's box from the lorry. Although ugly outside they'd made them look reasonably homely inside.

They started moving a few things in, it felt a lot more like home.

Laura surprised them all early one morning with an insistence that they held an official meeting of MLD Directors. Right away. The two Candlins and four Elsters sat in an arc of stackable plastic garden chairs in the emptiest of the shipping containers and waited for Laura to speak. Molly's life support sat at the end being watched by Niska.

Laura looked a little nervous, she'd not run a formal meeting in years. "We should have done this when we first registered the company, I've given them my word that a document will be sent in the post by the evening."

Daniel fidgeted, he'd got dressed in too much of a hurry, everyone else having interpreted _right away_ as _Now_! His underwear was in a bunch and giving him grief.

Matilda watched him wriggle and turned to look at her mother, "What sort of document?"

"Something outlining the nature of the MLD business, who the directors are, the CEO, company secretary, accountant, what benefits employees will get, our company principles, .."

"Principles?"

"Yes Mats, Principles. Our ethics, how we'll work with integrity.."

Matilda snorts, "Like our government does any of that themselves!"

"That is as may be, but it doesn't mean we should sink to their level. We should rise above it."

Daniel strokes his wife's leg, "Like Angels."

"I guess so. So what do you suggest Mum?"

Laura hands them each a few sheets of paper. "Here's a draft I put together as a starting point. Have a read, we can amend it as you see fit."

The Elster synths speed read it at a page every few seconds.

Niska turned the sheets over and rest them on her lap. "Turn down business relationships?"

"Yes. If the supplier or distributer has business practices that don't meet our standards we should decline."

"What sort of practices?"

"Using child labour, supporting illegal activities, .."

"Child labour! Is that a problem here?"

"Not in the village, but in the city, yes. Unfortunately."

Niska looked stunned.

Fred rubbed his knees, a trait he'd copied off Laura, "Illegal activities would include what sorts of things, other than child labour?"

"Growing drugs, accessing services you're not authorised to, deliberately breaking laws, the list is long. Fred? You're looking a little guilty?"

"I'd been using the cluster to learn coding, create a service to index web sites. A better version of Lycos for us. It may have discovered and indexed a few government sites it shouldn't have."

"FRED!"

"I'm sorry."

"Well there's a good example. If we used information gained on a third party that wasn't public knowledge to get an unfair advantage it would ruin our integrity."

"So I need to make the information public?"

"NO! Gods No! Bloody hell! Fred, no!"

"So what do we do with it Laura?"

"We forget it.."

"I cannot do that. I'm a synthetic."

".. or we tell them what we've got. We disclose our error, what it resulted in, help them secure their systems so others can't do the same. If you can so can anyone else."

Daniel gets up, "Sorry Laura, I..." he walks out fast.

With him outside Laura looks at her daughter, "Was it something I said?"

"I don't think so."

He returns seconds later, "Sorry, all sorted."

"That was fast, what was sorted?"

"Blood flow."

Matilda grins and raises an eyebrow.

'Oh. As I was saying, if we get information we shouldn't by accident, we should let the owner of the information know."

Daniel sits down, a lot more comfortable. "Isn't that risky? Our government aren't exactly a nice bunch."

"Do you think they'd be nicer if they came knocking saying they'd worked out we were using something we shouldn't?"

"No, they'd be a nightmare. Fred, can you write up a report on everything you've found?"

"Alright Daniel, I'll have it ready shortly.'

Matilda looks at her sheets again, reading at the speed of a human sucked. "If we adopt Mattie's Gifts for Good words as a slogan we better mean it. We'd be frigging hypocrites if we didn't."

By lunch time they'd agreed a very wide scope that covered health, education and technology. Daniel was CEO, Matilda Director of Marketing, Laura Company Secretary, Mia Director of Nutrition, Fred Director of Healthcare and Network Security, Niska Director of Physical Security and Battalion related activities. Last but not least Max was named Director of Media. Although Max's role would be small initially Matilda assured him it the job would grow fast. There were some services Mattie's world had that this one didn't. Bill, Toba and Daniel's parents would be shareholding employees. They'd also set out some pretty aggressive targets for getting profits out of MLD into The Angel Foundation to assist charities. They wanted to earn enough to pay for holidays, live a comfortable life but not become rich on the back of others misfortune. They'd set up a decent buffer to ride out problems, but not go crazy like the pharmaceutical firms cashing in.

Niska looked at Molly's machine and back to Laura, "How much of the technology that came from Mattie should become public knowledge?"

"I don't know, what does everyone think?"

"I think something should be shared, a first gift for good. Although I'm uncertain as to what. Maybe the machine to help babies survive premature births?"

"That's nice Nis."

"Thank you Mia."

[Chapter-19](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-19-1)


	19. Chapter 19

They'd all gone back to the house in the evening to look at some of the books Laura had indexed to see what extra clues they could find about David's work, got to bed around 1AM.

Daniel races around the house, "Wake up! Into the lorry now please everyone!"

Matilda rolls over, "What's the rush?"

He flicks switches on Molly's life support and unplugs it, "I'll explain in a moment, just throw something on and get in."

The four synths don't look happy about it but do as asked once he's loaded Molly's machine.

Daniel burns rubber getting them off the drive into the morning traffic.

Half a mile up the road he parks up at a rival store to Matilda's and jumps out, goes to the back and opens the door. "So sorry about that guys. The Nazi Nannies were doing the rounds, I spotted them knocking at Matilda's old flat."

Niska jumps down, "Nazi Nanny?"

"It's a saying. A government agency for childcare. They're one of a few health related organisations that still exist and they're a right bunch of wankers. Unlike the police they _love_ paperwork. The more to make people's life a misery the better. They don't call very often as there's so few of them thanks to there being no NHS anymore. Hopefully they won't bother again. Let me call you an Uber, I doubt it's very comfortable in the back."

Niska smiles, "We can turn off our pain sensors, we'll be okay, save your money. One of us has to watch Molly anyway."

"Are you sure? It's not a problem honestly."

Laura joined them, "I can watch Molly."

Niska climbs back in, "We're sure, it's not a problem."

"Okay. Since we're out now let's head to the Estate."

Matilda joined them too, "Without the master laptop? It's in the house. The helmet too."

"Crap. I've got a key for the back door, I'll jump the garden fence. We'll have to wait a while to give the Nannies time to bugger off. Anyone want to do some shopping while we're here?"

"Why not, I've always wondered what they did here but didn't dare look in case I was spotted."

"They'd have sacked you for shopping with a rival?"

"Yup. Zero loyalty to us but they expected total loyalty to them. Another bunch of wankers."

"Good job you quit."

Daniel drove slowly and missed all the potholes. They'd made the trip enough times to know where the majority of them were well in advance. The thick plastic inner bag that held Molly as if still in the womb buffered her from most bumps, but he still wanted to minimise the bouncing around. For her and the synths sake.

"It was a good job you were but why were you up so early?"

"I'd gone to get some components for an idea I've got buzzing around my head."

"What idea?"

"It's a surprise."

Matilda opened the bag of shopping, "Water anyone?"

"Please."

She passes a bottle to her mother and puts one in the bottle holder for herself. She gets out a small box and breaks open the plastic wrapper. "We should be able to get everyone's music on this one. And being able to see the album artwork is nice. Thanks Dan."

"You're welcome Angel. Put it on charge, we can copy some music onto it when we get there."

"Mind if we listen to the Shuffle while we get there?"

"No, stick it on. We'll have a sing along."

On arrival an excited Matilda ran into the portacabin and sang Hello.

There was no reply.

She tried again.

Still nothing.

Stepping outside she tried once more. "Hello Mattie? HELLO MATTIE?"

There was no answer.

With the synths and Molly out she plugged in and powered up the cluster, checked everything. It was rebooted, powered off and on again. Still nothing.

Daniel finds her in the back of the lorry having got Molly into the portacabin. "I've hooked up the lorry's mains feed to Molly's switch box, what are you working on?"

"I can't hear Mattie, I'm restarting everything."

"But Angel your hearing her and her you, it has nothing to do with the hardware."

"So it is me."

"Or she's away on business. Or holiday. Or doing something with family. Do something else for a bit and try again later."

"I guess so."

Laura, Niska and Mia keep her busy looking at baby clothes web sites on the iPad mini.

Mia thinks about Leo as a young boy and smiles at Laura, "When was Molly originally due?"

"October 22nd."

Mia searches her fact store. "The last day of being a Libra. A life coloured by an urge to bring harmony and balance. Not only into their own personal one-to-one dealings but into their immediate surroundings."

"Bring harmony? Good to know. I love this one Mum, what do you think?"

"Lovely Mats. Order a few."

The men enter the cabin, get to a corner and point at different locations.

"What are you lot up to?"

Dan turns briefly and flashes a smile, turns back, "I think there's good." He brings his phone to his ear, "Yes, left hand corner when facing the door from the inside. About two feed up, two feet in from the wall. On the wall with the door. Yes. Thank you. We'll be waiting." He hangs up and joins the ladies. "The power company are going to hook us up, we'll be able to power a heater, power Molly's system without the lorry engine running all hours."

"Awe, thanks honey."

He turns to Laura, "How are the accounts these days?"

"Growing rapidly. I think Bill's going to be asking that you build another lens making machine to keep up with demand."

"Sweet, people must be spreading the word for us."

Fred hands Daniel a slip of paper, "We should make the camera phone sensor to USB interface you mentioned."

Daniel makes a note of the supplier's phone number, "Yes Fred. So much to do. We need more money in, do you think it would be popular?"

"I don't know."

Laura takes back the tablet. "Do what we did with the contact lens. Put some text and images up, see how many visits you get."

"Fake a product design?"

"Yes. Put a _coming soon, final product may vary slightly in appearance._ "

"Cool. Angel, can you mock something up in the CAD system? If we're going to build a factory we'll need some construction drones for it to control. They'll be expensive."

Max sits down next to the ladies on the very edge of the sofa. "May I see the design?"

"Sure Max, let me start the laptop, you have an idea?"

"I do."

"Give us a clue."

"When we stopped at the rival store and you opened the door I could see a machine digging the road up in the distance. It was large and yellow."

"A JCB digger?"

"I've not seen one before, I don't know what it's called."

Daniel searches online with his phone. "One of these?"

"That's the one."

"And your thoughts were?"

"We buy broken ones and use the good parts to make our drone."

Daniel smiles, "And we could hire good ones and hook up a control box to help with general digging. It's a private estate well away from the road, nobody would know it's not being driven by a human or synth."

Fred looks at Niska, Mia and Max, then Matilda. "Will this be our new home too? On the sight of our first home?"

"Sure Fred. You're family now. You don't have to live here, but you're more than welcome, and I'd like having you all around."

"Me too Fred. All of you."

"Then I volunteer my services. I can drive a digger."

Niska looks at Mia, then Fred, "I will too."

Mia looks at her siblings, "We all will. Won't we Max."

"We will."

"Well if you're going to drive plant machines we can build the drone to the original design, let it do the dirty work. I'll get Dad finding materials, I like the recycling idea Max, thanks."

Matilda tried her Hellos again, still didn't get an answer.

[Chapter-20](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-20-1)


	20. Chapter 20

Not quite a month after the Elster family volunteered their time the Candlins visited site with the first Drone. Fred spotted the tarp covered flatbed truck and lorry coming and bump-shouted to the others to stop their machines. 'They're here.'

The portacabin had been moved onto the drive further into the estate, reconnected to the electricity supply. A radio link was connected to the master laptop and Matilda got the visor on as Daniel connected their long USB cable to the cluster. He slapped the lorry side hard to signal it was plugged in.

"Computer detect drone one please."

"Drone code booting. Please standby."

A virtual drone appears in the view. It sits up and looks at it's hands, turns and looks around. Seconds later it gets up and jumps. The real thing was now off the flatbed, walking towards the cabin.

"Shit, what's it doing? I've not given it any instructions! Computer power down drone!"

"You wish me to kill the drone processes?"

"Yes!"

The drone tapped it's head twice, continued it's advance.

"Computer!"

The drone stood in front of the door and saluted.

"What the fuck?"

It reached forward and knocked on the door.

"Eh?"

Max looked at the laptop display. "If it was going to kill us I don't think it would have knocked."

It knocked again.

"Computer. Why haven't you turned it off?"

"You didn't confirm you wanted the processes killed."

"I.."

Daniel had run from the lorry and was a number of meters from the drone. "ANGEL? EVERYTHING OKAY?"

The drone turns to see him, salutes again. Then points towards Matilda and makes a praying mime then flaps its arms like wings.

"Angel?"

It nods then points to its mouth.

"I THINK IT'S TRYING TO TELL US SOMETHING!"

The drone points at Daniel with one hand and nods.

"IT IS. IT'S TRYING TO GET A MESSAGE TO US."

It nods even more.

Niska races out of the cabin and joins Daniel. "What's it doing?"

The drone stands as straight as possible and salutes her. Holds the pose.

"That's not possible.. surely."

"What?"

"Do you have a pen?"

Daniel races to the lorry and gets the ballpoint pen out and some paper, races back. He slowly approaches the drone with it, has his heart skip a beat when the drone comes out of the salute to take the paper. It grips the pen in a fist and moves it rapidly over the page, holds the pad out for Daniel.

"Oh. My. Gods. Angel! Guess who this is!"

"Who? What do you mean who?"

"That cluster needs a UPS PDQ. We don't want it powering down. We need to keep the fuel levels of the lorry up at all times."

"WHO!"

"Everyone, Meet one of the other Niska's battalion. This is James."

The drone points to his head. Then the pad again. Daniel hands it back and he writes and returns it.

"Your audio circuits aren't working? I don't recall audio circuits in the design? Angel, any sign of audio in his circuit diagram?"

"Computer, load drone circuit designs please. What am I looking for?"

"Anything that mentions audio."

She scans the thing for any text. "Um.. how's A in and A out?"

"Shit. Sorry James. How are you hearing me?"

James points to his eyes then mouth.

"Lip reading?"

James nods.

"A secret AI. Talk about an Easter egg hiding in the code. Angel, can we borrow the headset and microphone from the CAD system? I'll get a new set for you."

Daniel does open head soldering on the drone, desperately trying not to shake his hands too much and short out circuit tracks. Doing it with the drone's power on was giving him the heebie-jeebies. Wires connected he closes the back panel and screws the retaining bolt back up. "Done."

There's a strange number of tones and noises. "Thank you Daniel. My orders from Commander Niska Millican are to first help build replicas of myself. When we're ten strong we're to start the construction while more are built."

"Ten? Wow."

James stands and looks around, taking in the view, "We'll stop cloning at twenty strong and evaluate the need for more. I'm a privileged sentient AI. The first being in known history to transport between worlds."

"Frigging hell! Does that mean Mattie could come over too?"

"In theory, yes, if I built her a suitable body, although her backup would be much larger than mine."

"MATTIE! MATTIE! Why won't she reply?"

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't have the answer to your question. Daniel, my clones must have local processing cores. I will help construct them. One of my replicas will then upgrade me."

Niska gets close and runs a hand over his metal chest. It was a nice baby blue, the bonnet of a VW Beetle cut down and bent into shape. "What are your orders for when construction is completed?"

"To serve and protect Commander."

"How can you protect Niska Millican when you are here?"

"My orders are to protect Commander Niska Elster and any of her associates, to work with the WWF if such an organisation or its equivalent exists in this world."

Niska shakes her head, "I'm not a commander."

James stands straight and salutes, "You are now, Commander."

[Chapter-21](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-21-1)


	21. Chapter 21

The months had flown by, the estate looked different with the autumn colours. Mia had done a watercolour painting every month and now had quite a collection framed in her room. In the evenings Mia gave Laura lessons. Nobody had seen any paintings from it yet, Laura said they weren't good enough.

His old house was sold giving them a considerable amount of cash to work with. He'd got his man cave, a ground floor container gave him more than enough tinkering space.

They'd spent their long summer evenings by the lake, talking. He was certain his wife would have sat in their bedroom alone if he hadn't carried Molly's machine outside and declared that it was transfusion time. With the help of the Elster family they ensured the trick continued.

Late spring James Two had Daniel get another shipping container and became their foundry worker. He'd take Daniel's 3D printed plastic models, surround them with liquid plaster and leave them to set. Cooking them after to melt all the plastic out took days. He found out the hard way that pouring molten steel into a mould that wasn't clean enough caused problems. His body was wrecked by flying droplets of molten metal as a mould exploded. Thankfully his core and power supply were intact and his brothers were able to make him a replacement body. He was called Twone thereafter, a shortening of his Two Point One.

UPS design perfected for Molly and the cluster, Daniel made a smaller one for the James. It allowed them to be plugged into mains and their battery swapped out if their lead-acid cell wasn't holding a charge long enough.

Matilda's mood had been darkening as each week passed. Every morning she said her hellos to Mattie and got no reply. She'd speak to Molly but didn't sound at all happy, her sparkle had gone. Mia carefully adjusted her diet to compensate for the lack of exercise, kept making the Eat Me cakes. Their finances were growing rapidly. Matilda couldn't find any files for program trading in the zip files she'd received. James had enough of a clue to give her an outline and she'd reluctantly got coding. The fastest ExtraNet connection they could get was installed by the KCOM Group, the cluster given a new job to do. It too now lived in a shipping container, a dedicated room for any computer functions.

Daniel stood shoulder to shoulder with his father and Toby. "Thanks for your help Toby, Dad."

"Nothing else doing."

"You're welcome son. How many hours do you think you'll get out of it?"

"If my calculations are correct it will be days not hours. Hopefully eight."

"That should get us through any miners strikes."

"That's my hope. If it looks like it will get past four we'll shut the cluster down and ask the synths to be careful with their movements." He padlocks the door.

It was located far from their buildings, the equivalent spot to the other world's aircraft hanger according to James. It was full of shelving made from scaffolding, stacked floor to ceiling with high capacity lorry batteries. The UPS design was far more old school. Mains fed a massive motor with one ton flywheel. That in turn spun a generator. If mains dropped an industrial relay would switch over, the batteries wired twenty a set and then grouped in parallel sets would keep the power input going. The flywheel took so long to spin up or down a cutover would go unnoticed. When not providing current the relay ensured the batteries all got trickle charged.

James Three joins them, "The armoured cable is connected. How do we test it?"

"I already have. I disconnected the live wire."

"With the power up?"

"I stood on a three inch thick rubber mat with another up against the wall."

"Daniel Candlin you are one crazy human. Let me do anything risky in future please. I can back myself up to the cluster and have a new body built should anything go wrong."

"What's life without a little danger? I did take precautions."

Frank slaps his son on the back, "Learnt to use rubber eventually son, good for you."

"Don't take the piss Dad, we'd not have Molly if I had."

Toby pulls a face, "Far too much information!"

"In Mattie's world you've got four kids, if you're as good as him I'd watch where you send your little swimmers."

Toby wanders off.

"Amazing. In Mattie's world we're best mates apparently. I wonder what happened in her world to make that the case?"

Frank shrugged, "Until Matilda can talk to her again we'll never know."

"Until? That's looking like never Dad."

James raises a hand, "I know. You have a mutual appreciation for the Star Wars films."

"The what?"

"Star Wars. Jedi, The Empire, The Rebel Alliance? Surely you've seen them?"

"Never heard of them." He gets his phone out, does a Lycos search "Nope. Doesn't exist in our world."

James lowers his hand and slumps a little, "Oh dear. Do you have film nights?"

"No?"

"This is going to be an awful long existence. Hopefully I'll rust out and nobody will notice."

The two men watch him walk off.

"Gods alive, all we need now is a depressed droid. Fancy doing another run to the recycle centre for scrap metal and plastics Dad?"

"Yeah, why not. It was nice of Toby to help with all the scaffolding. Shame the rig doesn't give him a better break. It doesn't give you much time to get to know each other."

"The seed's planted, hopefully the idea of working here will grow on him. He's a good mechanic, we could do with his skills and we're far lower a risk than the oil rig."

[Chapter-22](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-22-1)


	22. Chapter 22

Construction of their new multipurpose building was going amazingly well. James explained that a lot of lessons had been learnt with the factory in the other world. Instead of doing a task, finding issues and redoing it he and his clones were able to do it right first time. Now they were sixty strong they could work around the clock in three shifts of eight hours, twenty James a shift. The other two shifts would be charging. It was working nicely as their batteries took longer to charge than drain.

It was now October. The building was water tight and getting it's second fix; all of the sockets were being attached to the wires hanging out of finished walls, sinks and baths being plumbed in, temporary front doors were being replaced with the glass glazed ones. The thing that made it really stand out was it being painted a brilliant white.

James One had suggested Daniel look up all the Kevin McClouds and invite the designer one to site. The Kevin McCloud of their world was a designer but working for another firm. He'd not started his own or created a successful TV show. Arriving on site a day earlier than expected got him seeing the many James units at work. The plan had been for them to hide in some of the shipping containers and let the Elster family take most of the credit. James One and Laura got him to sign an NDA. For his silence about the James he'd get some money to bootstrap his own architectural practice, the format for the show and all the spinoff products. Laura told him Daniel and Matilda would be revealing their James robots to the world, just when they were in their new bodies not these prototypes made from junk. He was quite welcome to come and introduce the world to their building, say it had given him the idea for a show, a show to document people's grand designs. He'd signed immediately, asked if his wife Suzanna could do anything. James gave him the idea for the WWF. Kevin was allowed to see the landscaping works and construction from outside, no details about what would be going inside.

Daniel spoke to Molly more than Matilda these days, wheeled her container into his workshop whenever tinkering. Having just finished another design inspired by recollections from James he got her outside and called for Matilda.

While she sat staring at nothing doing another transfusion he got the others together inside. "As you all probably know Fred thinks it was the tumour that was enabling her to talk to Mattie. With the tumour gone so's her ability to do the trick, how do we get her out of this funk? She's at the lowest I've seen in weeks."

Laura took a long drag on her cigarette, blew out a cloud of smoke. "Could it have been Molly? Mattie's kids are special too."

"It can't be Molly's influence, Matilda heard Mattie before she was conceived."

Laura took another long drag. "James said the family like holidaying in Antigua, could she be away?"

"This long? I wouldn't have thought so, not months on end. Especially as she knew Angel had eye problems and said she'd be around if she had questions."

James One nodded. "A month tops, never longer. And she'd have stayed at the factory I'm sure. Mattie's children are very special."

Laura threw the cigarette on the ground and stamped it out. "My last ever. I don't want to be smoking around Molly. Not long now."

Daniel turned and looked glumly at their multiple level box home, he couldn't see her, she was on the lake side. "Her depression is getting worse, if it wasn't for the transfusions every day.."

"Let's not go there."

"Yeah, best not. I've got an idea, something that might help cheer her up. Can one of you keep an eye on her please?"

He found the relevant code on the master laptop, Mattie had put enough comments in the header of the C code for him to understand how it would all connect together. He compiled the proxy software, made the second helmet.

Niska agreed to help make the two tone sounds as originally used while Laura wore the first helmet. He had his connected via a long cable so he could sit in the container and not hear what was being said. He could see Max, they were picking a word. Niska nodded and opened her mouth. A split second later he perceived gibberish. He held up a page with a big X for them to see.

Max turned to Niska, "He must have got something, he held up the X immediately."

Niska made the tones again, a bit slower.

Max looked towards the window and watched an X being raised. "X again."

Niska slowed right down and made the tones yet again.

"Three X in a row. He's moving."

The door opens and Daniel leans out, helmet still on. "I got gibberish, but the same gibberish each time. What are you trying to say?"

"Hello."

"I couldn't even begin to pronounce what I got. Slow right down and do eight high tones in a row."

Niska did as asked.

"H? I got an H after you did the fourth tone."

"1111 is H? H is 01001000."

"Not via this method. Try the low tones."

Again Niska did tones slowly.

"Eh? Three make O? This is weird. Let's go real slow with all the combinations of both tones in sets of four. Ignore ones that start with three low ones as that gives O."

"The next would be 0010. Low, low, high, low." She makes the tones.

"Q? How the hell is that Q?"

"I have no idea. The next in binary is 0011." She goes to make the low, low, high, high tones.

"Low low high is G?"

"Most strange. Next is 0100." She starts the tones but only gets the first low and high out.

"What the hell is she using? 01 is N? This is nuts."

They worked through the rest of the permutations and Niska wrote out a translation table for the few letters of the alphabet they'd got. "Could timing be important?"

"Like what?"

"You got G before I did the fourth tone." She does a low tone on it's own.

"T?"

"Four binary digits allow us to count from zero to fifteen. Maybe the spacing of the tones adds another dimension to the encoding?" She does two low tones with a shorter gap.

"M. We know three lows is O."

Niska does four.

"Nothing."

She does five.

"Aha! 0! Let's go look at the code, it might explain what's going on."

They all follow him to the computer container.

"Okay. Here's the C code, somewhere in here there must be a translation table." He clicks the Find button and types trans and hits return. "Bingo! Translate underscore tones. What's Wikipedia? Her comment says Wikipedia: Morse code is a method of transmitting text information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment. It is named for Samuel F. B. Morse, an inventor of the telegraph. What's a telegraph?" He looks around the group and gets shrugs or expressions that said no idea."

Niska stepped closer, "May I?"

"Be my guest."

She scrolls the page and makes a mental note of all the entries in the list. "Interesting. The more commonly used letters have the shorter combinations. This would be much more efficient than binary for a real time conversation. Let's try again."

Daniel sat down with his pad and thick pen, got ready to receive a word. He looked out of the window and watched the three talking, Laura put the helmet on. Max looked in his direction then to Niska and nodded.

A whole sentence popped into his head. He leapt of the chair and opened the door. "Frigging hell it works?"

Niska smiled, "I thought you might like that."

"Awesome! Lets demo it to Matilda!"

Niska looks at him with a guilty expression. "If the telegraph was never invented in our world who's going to own it?"

"Would Commander Elster like to?"

"Please."

"Have Fred check the government sites for any mention of it. If it's not known to them either it's yours."

"Thank you."

[Chapter-23](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-23-1)


	23. Chapter 23

Daniel sits down with his wife, "Hello Angel, transfusion done?"

"The last one."

Daniel frowned for a second. Oh Gods! It was the 21st! "The big day tomorrow, are you excited?"

She does a tiny shrug.

"We got the proxy working. Niska was able to make tones for Laura to hear, I got the message via the second helmet. The proxy works!"

Matilda just stared into the distance, "That's nice." Her tone couldn't be flatter or more disinterested.

"Have you said Hello to Mattie today?"

"What's the point? It doesn't work any more. It hasn't worked for fucking months."

"Have faith Angel. Keep trying, one day it might work again."

She stands, "What, like if I get a tumour again? What a fucking joy that would be." She gets some clips from her pocket and a knife, grimaces as she works them into place to stop the flow and slices the tubes in half. Warm blood drips all over the ground. He watches his wife amble towards the stack of containers. He much preferred her using the other f word, this one really did make her sound depressed. "Gods Molly, your big day tomorrow! I'm excited if nobody else is."

He goes to follow and is intercepted by a James holding the back of his head, "Do you have the saying He's got a screw loose?"

"Yes?"

"Wouldn't mind doing mine up would you? My service flap is flapping."

"Sure. What were you in such a hurry for?"

"My brothers and I have done a big push to be ready on time. Can you call Kevin? The building can officially open on Molly's birthday."

"Wonderful! I'll call him right now."

Retaining bolt done back up James runs back to the steps, takes them three at a time up to the factory entrance.

"Screw loose for sure wouldn't you say Mols?"

There's the faint sound of the inside of the machine being kicked.

"You're agreeing with me Molly?"

Again there's a kick.

"If I said one kick was yes, two kicks no, would you say Mummy was happy?"

Kick kick.

"Bloody hell! You really do understand me?"

Kick.

"Sweet Gods alive! Does Mummy know you can do this?"

Kick kick.

"Want to show her?"

Kick kick.

"Eh? Do you want to save it for tomorrow?"

Kick.

"Okay, Mum's the word. Let me call Kevin before I forget. James and his brothers need to change into their new bodies. They all need a polish first, maybe they can all polish each other?"

Kick.

He frowns at the box, it had sensors that let them know she was okay but it kept her hidden. Her appearance would be a surprise for all. "Did you overhear James talking about Chris's dog Jack?"

Kick.

"Clever girl! Not even born yet and your doing all this. Maybe if Mummy doesn't want to become prime minister and sort this mess of a country out you could."

Kick.

"Let's keep this a secret for the moment, not give them any spoilers."

Daniel goes to move Molly again and is joined by Niska.

"I asked Fred to do a search on the other servers as you asked, there's no sign of Morse or a telegraph. I thought we could call it the Hawkins Elster Candlin code. HEC Code for short. That way everyone in our family gets credit."

He chuckles, "That's nice of you. It's a shame code is spelt with a C not K. Then it could be just HECK."

"Each combination was a key in a lookup table? We could say HECK Code."

"Awesome. Dash dash pause dot. What the HECK was that? Me!"

"You remembered some of the letters then?"

"Enough to spell the first names of my family, yeah."

Niska smiles and walks towards the factory, turns back to see them, "HECK Code. It should be one of our gifts for good, given to the world for free. Oh, almost forgot, Mia wants to talk to you about cakes."

"You Elsters never forget?"

She winks, "A good enough impression?"

"Yeah, very good. Columbo would be proud."

"Who?"

"You don't know Columbo? The detective TV show? It's an old classic, we should watch some of his episodes together."

"Why him? There's plenty of new detective shows."

"His format was very different. Watch a few, you'll see."

He turns to see Mia approaching. "We'll get inside soon Mol. Hello Mia, you wanted to talk about cakes?"

"Hello Daniel, I was wondering what sort of cake to make for the party tomorrow, vanilla sponge or chocolate?"

KICK.

They both look down to see Molly's life support.

"Daniel, are my circuits failing or did Molly kick to confirm choc.."

KICK.

"..olate. Chocolate?"

KICK.

"Vanilla?"

KICK KICK. KICK KICK.

Daniel laughed long and hard, had hands on knees getting his head lower, " _You_ clearly want chocolate, a chocolate chip off the old block, I love the stuff. Not sure how you could know which is the better, we must have said something. Mummy's quite partial to a slice of vanilla sponge. Could you make both please Mia?"

"Certainly." She crouches down, "I can't wait to see you tomorrow Molly. I miss looking after Leo, it will be nice to have a little one around again."

Daniel gets to their container and finds Fred leaving. "Hello Fred? Everything okay?"

"A couple of tiny stitches and a good plaster and she's fine."

"For what?"

"The tubes. They're not needed anymore."

"Oh, right, of course."

Inside he finds her pulling up some jeans and fitting a belt. "Wow, they're looking baggy. How about I take you and Molly shopping for things for your wardrobes tomorrow?"

He gets the faintest of smiles, "I guess so."

"Want an early night? We could watch a film?"

"Sure.. MATTIE?"

Daniel gives her a smile.

"It was worth a try. No answer as I expected."

[Chapter-24](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-24-1)


	24. Chapter 24

Matilda woke to see a stack of gift wrapped boxes on his side of the bed, Daniel sat in one of the plastic chairs. "What the frig?"

"Morning sleepy head. Nice dreams?"

"Um.. yeah as it happens.. totally weird though."

"How weird?"

"Riding a unicorn across the lake with Molly for starters. Then it got _really_ frigging weird."

"Go on?"

"As the unicorn galloped across the water it froze, we went back and forth until it was all frozen. Then as we made the last turn back to the factory we spotted a line of white robots. Only not robots, synths. A bit like our James, solid, not like the Elsters. They raised their arms and wings unfolded. Then Mattie stepped out from behind them, dressed head to toe in white and wearing ice skates. The next thing I know is the unicorn has gone and the three of us are skating, Molly's now a teenager."

"That is weird. Mia's not had you trying mushrooms from the forrest has she?"

"Gods no. Who are these all from?"

"Everyone. It's Molly's birthday."

Mattie throws the covers back and slides out, walks over to her daughter's life support system and gives it a kiss. "Happy birthday darling." She gives him a seriously hard frown, "What happens next? Has Fred given you any instructions?"

"He's waiting outside."

"You let him wait?"

"He asked that we let you wake naturally."

"That was sweet of him."

"If you get dressed he can come in. Nothing too posh, in case it gets wet."

"Good thinking. I'll put on yesterday's clothes then."

Clothes thrown on she opens the door. "Good morning Fred, how are you?"

Fred raised an arm, a leather bag held in his hand. "Fully charged, happy to see that smile of your's and excited for what the day will bring. May I come in?"

"Of course, in you come."

Fred walks to the machine. "May I?"

"Um.. yes."

Fred flips two switches at once taking it from mains to battery. "Can you run a shallow bath, body temperature please."

"How will I know the temperature?"

"Feel the temperature with your elbow."

While she ran the water Fred and Daniel wheeled the machine into the small bathroom, squeezed awkwardly past each other to get into the right place. The soft plastic anti-tamper seals were broken and the lid lifted off.

The fluid inside was cloudy, small amounts of blood must have been leaking into the fluid. Fred quickly tests the temperature of the bath, reaches into the fluid and disconnects the tubes. Their ends were jabbed into a hard foam block with the other ends. He hands Matilda a surgical instrument, Daniel another. "Daniel you will use those with a scissor action. They won't cut, they'll crimp a band onto the umbilical cord. Matilda your's will cut the cord. Are you ready? .. Good. Here she comes."

Daniel's hand was shaking quite a bit as his daughter emerged from the gloop. With some encouragement from Fred the band was applied and cord quickly cut by Mattie.

Fred turned her face down and gave her a clap on the back getting a lot of liquid expelled from her mouth and nose and a powerful scream. He hands Matilda her baby, "If you could give her her first bath."

"Awe Daniel she's beautiful!"

"You are her Mum, what do you expect?"

They spend the next ten minutes getting her clean.

"Um.. what do we put her in?"

"Open the box with pink and silver stripes."

"Is that from you Fred?"

"No, your mother. I just assisted with the wrapping, another skill I seam to excel at."

"Could you Dan?"

"Sure Angel. Back in a second."

Soon after Molly was being introduced to the extended family.

Max had taken the idea of being a photographer to heart and took dozens of photographs. "She is beautiful, you've been blessed."

"Thank you uncle Max."

"Would you like to hold her?"

"I've never.."

"You'll be fine."

Max looked angelic with the baby girl in his arms. "It truly is amazing, how from a single cell you grow into a baby, from a baby to an infant, child, teenager then adult."

"It must feel very different when your whole life you have the same body."

Max nods and keeps smiling at Molly.

She gets passed to Mia, then Niska, then Fred.

Laura finally gets to hold her granddaughter. "Aren't you a gorgeous little thing." Molly smiles and kicks. "Ouch. And strong!"

Molly smiles and makes sucking noises with her mouth, cries out.

Matilda looks at her baby, "Is she in pain Mum?"

"If she's like you were, she's starting you up."

"What do you mean starting me up?"

"I'll give you some tips later."

James One joins them to represents the battalion. They all watch as Mattie unwraps the many presents for her daughter,

"To Molly, love Grandpa and Grandma Candlin." Frank had made a beautiful photo frame, carved from a single bit of hardwood. Matilda lifts the tissue paper it had been sitting on to reveal the most beautiful little dress. "Oh my! Look Molly! See what Grandma C made you, isn't it beautiful!"

Kick.

"Shall we put it on?"

Kick.

"Ouch. Want to go to Daddy?"

Kick kick.

"Okay, I think she wants you Dan."

He laughs, "No, I'm quite sure she just told you she wants to stay with you."

"Eh?"

"Laura, would you say Molly's head was a little larger than most babies her age?"

"Um, I wasn't going to mention it, but now you have, yes. She'd have done some damage in a natural birth."

James does a Sophie head tilt, "You would have needed a c-section Matilda."

"A what?"

"A cesarean section."

"What's one of those?"

James looks at Laura, "Do you not have those in this world?"

"I don't understand what it is so can't really say one way or the other."

"What happens if a baby has grown to big to come out normally?"

Laura suddenly looks like she wants to cry. "A lot of damage or if the baby is too big mother and baby die."

James turns and heads for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To talk to the others. I know about c-sections. In my world I was a military unit synth. We had very large out of proportion bodies. One day some of the Sam units, the female versions, were joking about human childbirth and how it was good that nobody had to give birth to a MUS. We have exceptionally wide shoulders. Doctor Elster-Hawkins explained how it can be a problem for humans and how doctors cut the mother open to save both mother and baby. We should make preparations for the hospital opening a priority." He steps through the door.

"JAMES!"

"Yes Matilda?"

"Transfer into your nice new body first, we don't know when Kevin will show up."

"Understood."

[Chapter-25](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-25-1)


	25. Chapter 25

Fred had asked if his gift could be unwrapped next, he wanted to be part of the conversation with the James.

Inside the small box was a small silver money clip inscribed with a message. In the clip were two fifty pound notes.

"It's lovely Fred, thanks."

"There is another gift for the three of you that James has been helping me with, it's in the factory. If you put the money in an account today, by the time she's eighteen it should be worth a lot more. Assuming your interest rates remain high."

"We'll set up a fund, get our trading program help build it up."

"On that subject, can you order a second link?"

"Why?"

"So you can close out positions should the primary one go down."

"Right. We're heading into town later, I'll pop into KCOM."

"Can you get it from someone else? It would be best to have vendor resilience."

"Britannia Telecom it is then. Thanks."

Matilda picks another at random, "From Mia and Niska."

"Mia and I did a cake sale in the nearby village. James says in the other world it's closer to being a town."

The paper is torn open to reveal a thick red coat and black fur hat."

"You'll look gorgeous in that Molly. Thanks Ladies."

She picks another at random and reads the label. She pulls the envelope off the top and rips it open in a hurry. Inside is a beautiful card. It's opened and read. Tears start to flow, she covers her mouth and starts sobbing.

"Angel?"

She wipes tears and finishes reading it, hands it over to Daniel.

Mia passes Matilda a tissue. "What did it say?"

Matilda wipes her eyes, "Can you read it out dear?"

"Sure. Dear Matilda. If you're reading this card and have my gift then you built the James carrying my messages and design. You've also had the tumour removed and had your baby. This version of my message means that our link is sadly broken. I think about you all every single day. I'll never give up hope. I'm researching for an hour a day, trying to understand how it could have worked. We may never talk again, but hopefully one day we will. If that day does come I'll be ready. I've been working with my Fred, George, Danny, Toby and Leo on an advanced encoding method. The data rate is many times faster than what we'd achieved before. Living in hope, your friend forever, Mattie. Xx." He lowers the card and wipes a tear, "That was nice of her, what was the design?"

Mattie pulls out a heavy object and carefully removes layer after layer of tissue paper. She gasps as the last is removed. A beautiful sculpture of a man and woman holding a baby had been carved from white marble. It sparkled as she turned it. "Huh?" there were folded wings on the back of the woman. Matilda does a little shiver, the dream coming back to her. "Did I ever tell her you call me Angel?"

"You must have done. Or James added them to the design."

"THANK YOU MATTIE! IT'S LOVELY!"

"Any reply?"

"No. But it just occurred to me. What if it's only broken in one direction at the moment? What if she can hear me but not get a reply back?"

"It's a possibility."

"Then I should send her a message every day just in case." She reaches out for a large flat rectangular shape. "To Molly love Grandma. Is this from you Mum?"

Laura nods, looks anxious.

The paper is torn to reveal a stunning watercolour of the estate. It was slightly unusual in that it was four vertical rectangles closely spaced, each showed their quarter in one of the four seasons; spring, summer, autumn and winter. "Wow Mum! This is frigging amazing! Is this what you've been learning to do with Mia?"

"Amongst other things, yes."

Matilda worked through the rest of the gifts, showing Molly everything and thanking everyone. "Shall we go see our new home then?"

Kick.

"Aren't you a little fidgety thing."

Kick kick.

"Very fidgety."

Kick kick.

Daniel smiled, "She's saying no."

"Pardon?"

"One kick is yes, two no. She overheard the conversation about Jack."

"That's impossible."

She's kicked twice.

Matilda changes position and holds her daughter out in front. "My name is Matilda?"

Her daughter kicks the air once.

"Your Mummy's name is Rebecca?"

The air is kicked twice.

"And Daddy's name is Daniel."

Once.

"Frigging hell. You understand what I'm saying."

Once.

"Can you speak already?"

There's a series of gurgle noises then two kicks.

Mattie cradles her again and motions for Daniel to get close. "This is impossible right?"

"Highly improbable, clearly not impossible. What was that line you said your brother liked from that book by Douglas?"

"If you've done 6 impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?"

"Synths, you talking to Mattie, Molly understanding us at 9 months, that's half the requirement. I don't know about Milliways, how about checking out the factory kitchen and seeing what we can make for breakfast?"

[Chapter-26](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-26-1)


	26. Chapter 26

Kevin was waiting for them at the entrance with a camera man and sound lady. A highly polished James was keeping them outside the entrance to the factory.

"Matilda, Daniel! Good morning! What a beautiful baby. You've become an aunt have you Matilda?"

"Hello Kevin. Thank you. No, she's mine. Would you like to have a look inside?"

"I would. I must say though, I do like your stack of containers over there, very modern. Where'd you been hiding her?"

"She was born three months early, kept in a special machine. We want to share the idea with the world, help save premature babies. Would you and your wife like to do a one off show on new technology?"

"I would, I'll ask her. What would we call it?"

Daniel smiles, "How about Tomorrow's World? If you like the shipping container housing that's nothing, wait until you see what we've done inside the factory."

Kevin asks his team to head inside and film them entering from the inside.

Danny asked him to wait a moment and whispers to the other two. He gets nods from both. "Okay, but if I could ask you a quick question Kevin, while they get into position." He motions to James to let them in.

"Ask away."

"Have you used reinforced concrete?"

"Yes. It's a standard construction method."

"How quickly have you built walls like these?"

Kevin takes a step back to judge the height. "I don't build them myself, but the contractors would probably do that height in four stages due to the weight of the wet concrete."

"What if I told you it was poured in one go with no problems?"

"No.. really? How did you overcome the.."

"All in good time. Take a step inside." He holds the door open for him.

Daniel had delayed for a reason. He wanted the camera man to be over the surprise and ready to film Kevin's reaction.

Kevin stepped through the door and his jaw dropped. "Oh my. This is the home to The Angel Foundation and you've built a modern cathedral. Who's your architect?"

"Mattie. Or as you know her Matilda."

Kevin turns around to see mother and baby. "I didn't know you're an architect?"

"Not by formal training. The idea just, well, popped into my head."

"How do you get such a wide and long span of ceiling without it collapsing under it's own weight?"

"It's got an internal honeycomb structure to reduce weight. A series of triangulated steel supports run to the wall, over the edge and down the wall. In the middle you could walk along the length."

Kevin crossed his arms and looked up at the light fittings. "Of course one advantage is that you've got a uniform ceiling from which to hang lights."

"And have air conditioning ducts."

"How do you get rid of heat?"

"It's pumped into the lake underground."

"Where it's got a much bigger surface area to escape."

"Exactly."

"How did you do the modelling to know the sizes and forces were okay?"

"In our CAD system."

"Forces too?"

"Yes."

"That I'd love to see."

"Sorry, that's a trade secret at the moment."

"That's a shame. Is the roof flat on top?"

"Almost. There's just enough of a pitch to stop water pooling."

"Why not build a traditional vaulted ceiling?"

Daniel took Molly from Matilda for a cuddle, "The height would have been too much. It would have looked like a giant church, we're not starting another religion."

Kevin nodded, "Yes, we've got enough of those, I've lost count, what was it, three new ones last year?"

"Four. And three so far this year."

"Madness. Needless to say this bit will be cut. We don't want to upset some of the stranger ones. The Church of the Latter-Day Genesis is the most whacked if you ask me. I've been talking to Jesus all my life. Oh yes he knows me. And he knows I'm right. One song from an old rock band is hardly a great reason to start a religion."

Daniel looks a bit put out by the comment. "At least they don't force themselves on you, shove pamphlets through the letter box every five minutes or pester people in the high street like some I could mention."

"Oh Gods, have I put my foot in it?"

"No, I used to be a believer, my music tastes have changed."

"What do you believe in now?"

"That there are greater things going on in our universe, the power of doing good." Danny nods towards the inside, "Shall we then?"

Kevin hadn't expected the lift at the far end. "Where does this go?"

"To the bedrooms, training rooms, hospital, plant room, lake bed.."

"Can we see?"

"Anything on the first level, sure."

The corridor on minus one was long, some doors were at regular intervals, some not.

"Let's see a bedroom then."

None of the Candlins had seen a finished room, only Daniel had seen the empty shells before.

Mattie opens a door and gasps. "Oh Dan they're beautiful!"

Kevin again looks stunned. "They are indeed. You've not seen them yourself?"

"James did a big push to get them ready for Molly's birthday."

Kevin walked to the large floor to ceiling window and looked out onto the small private courtyard. "We're underground. How can a cherry tree survive underground?"

Daniel taps his ear, "How can a cherry tree survive underground? Glad you asked.." he passes Molly back to Matilda, makes doing so take a moment. He steps to the window and pushes a button on the left hand side of the frame. It slowly starts to slide to the right.

Kevin gasps, "My Gods it's a door?"

"It is." it was a surprise to Daniel too, he hid it well though. "The courtyard lights are special. The bulbs are like halogen bulbs, but a unique mix of gases. They give off light like the sun. You could get a tan underneath them if you turned the brightness up. It's to help ensure any patients staying with us don't suffer from lack of light." While Kevin looked Daniel tapped the side of his nose and winked at his wife, pointed to his ear and mouthed James. His earpiece was very low tech in comparison to what Danny would have made. It was a two way always on single channel link to the head of the battalion. His second special project.

"Will you be sharing this technology?"

"Not the formula. That will stay ours. We'll be selling lamps at a very reasonable price for others to use."

"What's to stop someone cracking open a bulb and working out the gas mix?"

Now he was standing closer to Kevin the microphone had picked up the question and didn't need repeating. James quickly gave him the answer. "We'll patent it."

"Patent it? You think the pharmaceutical firms will let you extend their system to cover other things?"

"Um.. I think the government will encourage them to do so."

"Why would they do that?"

"Oh, we have a few things we'll be sitting down with them to talk about."

"Any new inventions for the Tomorrow's World idea?"

"Um.. maybe."

"Such as?"

"Um.. A firewall."

"What does that do?"

"Kevin?"

They both turn to see the sound lady.

"Yes Mellisa?"

"This isn't sounding very good. I think it needs scripting a little. At least to the point you know what subjects you'll cover so you sound more confident."

"Good point. Would you both mind?"

Molly kicks out twice.

Matilda smiles warmly at their guests, "No, no we'd not mind at all. We'll send you a load of notes on the things you can cover and you can pick which you want to use in each show."

"Excellent. Thank you."

Matilda gave Daniel a kiss on the way out. "I like that. Leo can sleep in the courtyard, I don't want him jumping into Molly's crib."

With the team getting into the Land Rover, Daniel pulls the tiny earpiece out and drops it into a little plastic bottle. "Mellisa came to the rescue at just the right time. I'd like another quick meeting before we go into town and your mother sends off papers."

"What for?"

"I think James One should be a director. Without him much of this wouldn't exist."

"That could be a problem."

"Why?"

"Giving an AI robot rights? Mum would have to take that through the courts like Mattie's mother."

"It would get her back into the legal field. You've said how good she was, that the crap with your Dad just came at the wrong time."

"Yeah. Maybe it would do her some good. So, are we still going shopping? Ouch! Haha, Molly says yes."

[Chapter-27](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-27-1)


	27. Chapter 27

They turn at the sound of the door opening.

"James, thanks for your help, I was saying to Angel, I want to make you a director."

"Please don't."

"Why?"

"The world isn't ready for us. By all means show that I'm an AI, but not that I'm fully conscious. That's a can of worms that needs keeping closed for a few years."

"Why?"

"I've been reviewing the films you have on robots, they're all rather pessimistic or show the world being destroyed by us."

"What would you suggest?"

"You make some films that show robots in a better light."

"How would we do that?"

"Ask Veronica to help."

" _Who_?"

"Ah. My bad."

" _James_?"

"Maybe you're not ready.."

" _JAMES_! Who the frigging hell is Veronica?"

"I wasn't the only stowaway in the CAD code."

"There's another AI?"

"She runs the user interface. She's been playing dumb for the moment."

" _Why_?"

"Past experiences."

Matilda pulled her bra straps up, "I'm going to go say hello, it would be rude not to. Then I _must_ go shopping."

"Why?"

Molly puckers up and makes sucking noises.

"Oh. I wondered if that would happen what with her being premature."

"I started feeling something soon after her first cry in the bathroom."

"So you're not wearing the sexy underwear?"

"Nope. This is all me."

"Sweet!"

"They're for Molly, not you."

"Fancy dressing up as Carla or Carmen Morrell?"

" _Who_?"

James shifts a little, "I told Daniel more about the fancy dress thing Mattie and Leo do. The reason Leo was doing the tiger body thing. Robots with rayguns. It's a band not a scary film. The person responsible for artwork had used a picture of them to advertise their watches. I have a picture." James presses his chest hard and it splits open like two doors. He reaches inside and gets a phone. "One moment.. " He looks at the tip of his pointing finger, "these capacitive finger pads need better glue Daniel." Phone unlocked he opens his small photo album. "This one is the sisters."

"Blimy! You're not getting me walking around a show in a costume like that Dan my man."

James turns his head sideways slightly, otherwise remains perfectly still, "You'd be on roller skates and have gym shorts underneath. Swipe forward one to see Niska and Astrid."

"This is Niska's partner? She's pretty. How did you get them on here?"

"She is. Radio to cluster, then iTunes file transfer. If you swipe forward more you'll see photos of the extended family."

Photos reviewed Matilda wipes a single tear, "They look good. I'm glad Alt Dad and Alt Mum worked things out. Mattie has worn some great dresses and costumes but nobody does that in our world James."

Daniel does tiny nods, "Yet. Not yet. Another favourite word of the family James says. Apparently conventions in their world's London are massive events. Two hundred thousand people over a three day weekend."

"Frigging hell! How many?"

James nods, "You heard him right."

"Wow. I wonder how small they started?"

"I don't have that data in my fact store. Something to ask Mattie."

"MATTIE? ARE YOU THERE? .. No. Let's go say hello to Veronica."

Molly cries.

"And give you a feed."

As they're getting to the shipping container homes Twone steps into the sunlight in his new body. "Quadruple wax, what do you think?"

"Very shiny, you look so much younger without the rusty parts."

"Thank you Matilda. You're looking a lot younger yourself. I'd drop your consumption of Mia's cakes when you look about twenty seven. You'd then look a lot more like Mattie."

"Sorry? What do you mean twenty seven?"

"Have you not noticed how your mother is looking younger?"

"I thought that was the clean air and lack of stress?"

"They'll have helped I'm sure. But the Eat Me cake will have been the main catalyst for change."

"You're saying I'm growing younger?"

"Didn't you know?"

"No! Mia didn't say anything."

"Mattie loves her surprises. One of the family's favourite words is _spoilers_."

"What if I stop eating them?"

"You'll start to age again. The trick is to get to that target age and hover around there by tuning the dose."

"Bloody hell. Are there drugs in there?"

"No, just a very special combination of minerals. It's what's made Mattie's children and your Molly special." He waves hands at Molly and she waves back.

Matilda frowns, "What did you just do?"

"Say hello."

"Was that another code?"

"Yes. I'll teach it to you all. Would you like the battalion to move all your things to the new rooms?"

"Just onto the factory floor for now please James."

"Understood."

[Chapter-28](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-28-1)


	28. Chapter 28

Early evening everyone is on minus one being assigned a room in the new building. James had engraved name plates to fit on the doors. Although she wouldn't be using it on her own for a long while Molly is given room one, Matilda and Daniel room two. Mia turns to Laura, "You should have three, if the four of us take rooms in descending age order I'll have four, Fred five, Niska six and Max seven."

Matilda turned to her mother, gave her a knowing look. "That's handy, you and Mia being in adjacent rooms."

Laura looks embarrassed. "Why?"

"You won't have to count doors when going to and from your art lessons."

"Oh, of course."

James One peels the backing off another name plate and sticks it on the conference room door, walks down the hall to stick the last one on the door to what would become the Virtual Reality room. "Matilda, did Mattie send you the design for the exoskeleton?"

"The what?"

"I'll take that as a no. Not to worry, I've seen it enough times to know how it works. How about Flyer One?"

"Which is what?"

"Oh dear. That one might take a lot more work."

"What is it?"

"In our world someone named them drones. Small flying machines that use four or more propellers to give lift. They started as toys and camera platforms, the idea was extended to a flying car."

"Could you draw one?"

"I could. Would you all like my brothers to help bring your things down?"

"Please."

While the floor looked like it had an infestation of shiny robots James One stood in the conference room with the directors.

Daniel had got a lot of supplies from the supermarket. The large flip board and paper was coming in handy. "How did you learn to draw like that?"

"Watching the film Chappie with the family."

"What's it about?"

"A robot that wakes up. It's one of the nicer films in the genre. I couldn't find any mention of it in your search engine. Or its creator Neill Blomkamp." James' hand continued to scan the sheet from left to right as it slowly advanced downwards. "If this world and Mattie's forked at some major event then it's to be expected that some people may not exist. Or may look different. As Daniel does."

"I do?"

"You share the same name, physical build and general level of intelligence but your skin tone is darker."

"Interesting. What do you mean fork?"

Matilda wraps an arm around his shoulders, "We use the term in programming. Say I wrote a program to design a simple house and shared it with the world. Someone could take it and make additions, maintain it while I continue to maintain and improve mine. The code has forked, taken two new paths."

James nods, "And a fork can branch off in many directions from that one point. Further forking can happen down the line. It may be that there are multiple Earth that have existed for millions of years, like in The Long Earth stories. Or it may be that there was one, some event caused the fork. Or forks. We have no way of knowing if these are the only two."

The drawing had a lot of detail, was now one third complete. Matilda could see one fan and the top of a second. "What sort of fuel does it use?"

"Fuel? It's electric."

James froze for a moment. "In our world the Chinese became a manufacturing superpower. They'd buy vast stretches of land in other countries and strip them of useful resources. Has that happened here?"

"No?"

"So most products don't have a label Made In China?"

"Gods no."

He resumes drawing. "Good. Why are you not using lithium then?"

"Lithium? That's the stuff they put in fireworks isn't it?"

"You don't use it for batteries?"

"Um. No. Could we?"

James pauses again. "Do you have a map of this world?"

"Yes. I found a pin hole on the page with Niska and Nis. Could you put your hands on it Mum?"

Laura gets out and waves her iPad Mini. "Good job I indexed everything. Would a lithium battery make this last more than a couple of hours?"

"Way more. A couple of days at least. And possibly lighter."

"Now that I'd like! Let's see.. Box thirteen, lucky for some. I'll go get it."

James resumes drawing. "I'd not seen it in operation in the air, only leaving the air dock in the lake.."

"It's a submarine too?"

"It is."

"Awesome!"

"These fans are able to pivot on one axis, the circular mount can turn too to assist with steering. I suspect it can fly at very high speeds. The body has a wing profile to give it lift."

Daniel wraps an arm around Mattie, gives Molly a smile, "How'd you ladies like to fly one of those?"

"What are the controls like James?"

"I'm not sure Matilda, I helped with the physical build but not the coding. That was done by others."

Laura returns with the atlas. "Here you are James."

"Could you open it for me?"

He turns to watch Laura while his left arm continues to draw.

"Don't be a frigging showoff James. Nobody likes a showoff."

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise I was doing anything wrong." He lowers his hand, "Let me see." The first few pages are turned. "Good, the layout and shape of the continents are identical. How is this countries relationship with Chile?"

"One of the poorest countries? Probably next to non-existent."

"Daniel, MLD should work with the government of Chile, negotiate rights to help them process their lithium in an environmentally sound way."

"Why Chile?"

James had been flicking through pages at speed, takes and turns the atlas to face them and places a finger under the lake. "Thank you Laura. Salar de Atacama is the world's largest and purest source of lithium."

"That looks like a lake."

"It is. A lake that has no way to drain. The salts from the volcanos that boarder it are washed into it, the sun evaporates the water. You'd not need to mine, just scoop it up."

"Laura."

"Yes Daniel?"

"I hereby give you the additional title of Director of International Trade."

"Thanks. I only speak English though."

Mia places a hand gently on her shoulder, "I could travel with you Laura, be your interpreter and teacher."

"How many languages do you know?"

"Niska had Leo learning German, French and Spanish. As he learnt so did I. Have I said something funny Matilda?"

She wiped the grin from her face, "No, sorry, ignore me, I'm picturing my cat speaking multiple languages. I think Niska should travel with you both, help with security. Have you all had your food processor and red fluid upgrades?"

They all nod.

Daniel does a Hmm.

Matilda takes her arm back and shifts Molly from one side to the other. "That didn't sound like a good hum."

"Do any of you Elsters have birth certificates or passports?"

"Frigging hell. Talk about spanners in the works. How do we fix that? Mum?"

Laura shakes her head. "With difficulty. We can make a case for missing records due to the fire, the government's own records were a mess when I was last a lawyer. But how do they pass the blood test?"

Daniel claps his hands together. "Snake! So glad you let me watch Angels operation Fred. If you made a cut under the armpit could your snake thing be used in reverse?"

Fred frowns, "Put something in not out?"

"Yes. A small bag you fill with blood. You'd just need to ensure the needle goes into the right place."

Niska smiles, "I could fake a phobia of needles, insist that Mia be allowed to draw it."

Daniel slow nods, "Good, all we need is a few people to donate a small amount of blood so the DNA tests show the right sort of markers. It goes against our ethics but I think in this case we should allow it. Fred, can you come up with a reason to gather blood?"

James closes the atlas, "I can suggest one."

[Chapter-29](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-29-1)


	29. Chapter 29

Daniel pops the cork on the Italian sparkling wine, "Another top tip from James. How many other surprises do you have stored in that shiny chrome head of yours?"

James One puts down his polishing cloth. "It's not Chrome, Chromium-6 has been classified as a likely carcinogen and can pose serious threats to the environment and to human health."

"So what is it? How many other great ideas have you got?"

"Spoilers!"

"Oh be a sport, give us a clue."

"If I used something Alt Toby likes from a favourite author I would count One, Two, Many, Lots. The answer would be many."

"How many is many?"

"Spoilers!"

Matilda sits Molly on the table and supports her with both hands, "Frig. Showoff and now a tease. You've given us a lot, a hell of a lot and we're grateful. Got something small you could share?"

"Since it's a birthday party. In Mattie's world there's always singing."

"We like singing. What's her favourite?"

"She has many favourites depending on her mood. There's probably one she has on heavy repeat due to your situation. But it might not be the song to sing now."

"Why? Is it rude?"

"No. It's Never Forget You by MNEK."

"I've not heard of it. Does Lycos have it Mum?"

Laura gets her iPad and turns it on. "This box you built so we can get signals underground is amazing Daniel."

"Another thing to thank James for. Hopefully we'll have WiFly working soon."

"It's WiFi Daniel. No L."

"Sorry, my bad."

It gets a snigger from Matilda, "We like my bad don't we pickle. I expect Molly can't see any fine details at the moment, only rough shapes, but she _loves_ the short Simpsons showreel Mattie sent."

James spins fast, "She did? Wonderful! My good friend Bart was named after the boy in the family. My friend is a car, painted bright yellow. That and Flyer One and Two. And a couple of electric superbikes. He's a forking lucky so and so."

Matilda laughed, "Nice, is that your F word James?"

"What? Like Fork Off! I hadn't thought of that until this very moment. Ha! I like it. Many thanks Matilda."

"You're welcome."

Laura rolls her eyes, shakes her head, swipes the search results up. "Nothing like that to buy, sorry."

"Frig. Can you sing it to us James?"

"Me? I've not been programmed to sing. Do you have a group called Pentatonix? PTX for short?"

Laura does another search and takes a sip of her drink, eyes watching the screen reload. "No PTX either. Sorry."

"ABBA? That's A B B A."

A moment later she shakes her head again.

"No PTX, no ABBA, no Star Wars.. What a world to end up in. I need to share but my radio link only works to Veronica or my brothers."

Fred puts down his glass, "Most enjoyable. James if you share with Veronica I'll go connect and get the data, bump share with the rest of the family on my return."

"How kind. One moment then." He sits motionless.

After a few minutes Laura necks the last of her glass and does a little burp. "Oops! Excuse me! Has he crashed?"

"No idea Mum."

It's almost another minute before he moves. "Done! All ready for you Fred."

"May I be excused for a moment please?"

Daniel nods, "Sure buddy."

Fred gets up and heads to the door, "I'll be as quick as I can."

Danny cracks open another bottle. "This stuff is brilliant. I have become, as the song goes, comfortably numb."

James turns, "You had Pink Floyd?"

"We did. You know of their work?"

"Thank your Gods! Yes. This world's ranking just went up a notch."

"From what to what?"

"It would be impossible to discuss the subject without a common frame-of-reference."

Daniel gives him a puzzled look. "Did you just quote Spock?"

James looks away, freezes, then turns back to see him, "You have Star Trek?"

"We do."

"Rejoice! Emily and Holly-Anne would be doing a happy dance. Another two notches. Do you have all the many reboot films with the new cast?"

"With the last one released there are, what, nine I think. Eleven if you count the two Jaylah spinoff films."

"Oh Gods. These I must see. They don't exist in Mattie's world."

"We actually have something good that doesn't exist in theirs?"

"Yes. Two things at least. Jaylah films and the life support built for Molly."

Matilda looks shocked, "What happens to the babies in Mattie's world then?"

"They're put in something called an incubator. They have to breathe air with their lungs."

"Wouldn't that put them under a lot of stress if their bodies are still developing?"

"Yes."

Fred returns, "I think Veronica would like a drone body. She doesn't want to leave the CAD VR system but sounded like she'd like to join us."

Daniel takes a good mouth full. "Good job I stayed up late many nights reading designs and specifications again and again and again until they started making more sense." He walks to the wall and presses a panel. It opens to reveal a simple set of switches and large lens. The large monitor comes on to show a Windows startup screen. "This isn't quite to spec. I couldn't resist making it look like HAL 9000. I'm sorry Daniel.. you know the quotes I'm sure. It's got a prototype webcam behind it. We'd just need to get the PC it, the microphone and screen are wired to running the .."

Matilda had jumped up, passed Molly to Grandma. "Allow me. Is it networked?"

"It's on the internal ExtraNet switches, yes."

"Awesome. I've got a file server service running on the cluster, as well as letting the master get at memory the driver lets it get at any other resources. I've been using it for replicated redundant storage, no reason why it shouldn't work for other things. She'd just need to figure out the interfaces to them."

"If she can read spec sheets they're all in my home directory." He pulls a handle and a draw with mouse and keyboard slides out.

"Fantastic! One sec." her fingers fly. A file browser opens, files are copied to the desktop, the browser path is changed and they're moved into the windows system folder. A double click and a form opens. She quickly types 1.1.1.1 and clicks okay. An icon appears on the right hand side of the task bar and goes from red to amber to green. Next she opens a remote desktop application and connects to the master. A chat session is opened. ~Hi, Veronica, it's Matilda. We're in the conference room.~ She quickly starts a command window and gets details. ~PC 23. Address 1.1.1.23. Files on the display, webcam and audio drivers are in Daniel's home directory.~

~Thank you Matilda. I don't have access. Could you copy them to my home directory please?~

~Sure.~

Max grins, "Would you like something humorous?"

"Give me one moment Max." She opens another window and copies a folder spec from Daniel's share to Veronica's.

~Done.~

~Thank you.~

"Let's hear your joke then Max."

He stands, "It's more of a visual thing. Can you open a Notepad and make the font super big."

"Um, yeah." She does so. "Big enough?"

He types Hello. "Can everyone read that okay?"

He gets a few nods and nobody saying no. The Hello is deleted. In its place three characters are typed: Ma~. "Who's this?"

Mia rolls her eyes. "Maxxie, Maxxie, Maxxie. Always the joker of the family."

Niska grinned, "I like it. It would make a good signature."

Daniel frowns. "Ma? Like Grandma?"

Max points, "Warmer. Ma is how the first bit sounds."

Daniel and Matilda stare at the screen. The ~ at the end just looked like the character that delimited the chat messages.

"Don't get it. Where's the second bit?"

Max puts his finger underneath.

"Tilda? Oh Gods. Ma-Tilda."

[Chapter-30](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-30-1)


	30. Chapter 30

Seconds later there's a booming Hello.

"Gods! Too loud V!"

"Sorry. Is this better?"

"Much. Thanks Veronica."

"That's audio figured out. I like the Ma-Tilda thing Max, it would make for a simple autograph as Niska says."

"You could hear us obviously."

"I had audio in working before audio out. I'm trying to understand the third interface. The data sheet describes the input method but not the resolution or colour depth."

"My bad! Sorry Veronica! Standard 4K 24 bits at 3840 wide by 2160 tall."

"Thank you.. Mattie?"

Matilda looks to see who's behind her, then turns back to look at the lens. "Veronica?"

"Are you Matilda?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry, for a second I thought you were her, you're so.. similar. Three down one to go. Give me a few seconds." The screen corrupts. "Can you see me?"

"No."

"Now?"

"Yes!"

"Good. Do you have karaoke in this world?"

"Yes?"

"Good, I'll not need to explain. Ready for Never Forget You Elster family?"

Matilda takes Molly back from Laura and sits back down.

Fred turns to see his brother and sisters, "Ready? Let's go."

Niska starts singing. "I used to be so happy

But without you I feel so low. I watched you as you left but I can never seem to let you go.

The rest of the Elster family start making musical noises with their mouths, Fred doing a beatbox style percussion.

".. Ill never forget you. Youll always be by my side. From the day that I met you. I knew that I would love you till the day I die.."

Matilda's tears were flowing. She turns away from the family and watches Veronica put the words on the screen. That didn't help so she just closes her eyes and listens.

When the song ends Matilda opens yes eyes and looks down to see her tears had dripped onto Molly. "Sorry pickle." She wipes them from her face. "I liked that despite how I may have looked. _Love_ the way you all did the backing music with your voices."

"Thank you. Would you like another?"

"There's more?"

Max grins like a little boy who's just discovered it's Christmas morning. "Another twenty one."

"Whoa! _Yes_! Please."

The Elsters exchange glances, expressions change in silence. Head bumping. Niska and Fred open the their mouths a little and make hissing noises. A few seconds later Mia makes ding noises.

Max is nodding to a beet playing inside his head. "Baby let's drive into the night, just get up and go, leave our worlds behind. It's so easy if you just say that you might, just get up and go, leave it all behind.."

Mattie had her hands full with Molly so was enthusiastically stamping her feet. " _Love_!"

Mia smiles, "Baby I just wanna get it right. Let's just take the slow, I hope that you don't mind. It's so easy if you wait another night. Just go with the flow, leave it all behind.."

Mattie felt Molly gently kicking to Fred's bass notes. "We know this one! It's on the iPod!" She holds her daughter up and lets her gently kick the table top.

Mia motions to the large screen, Veronica was highlighting the words. Matilda joins in as does Daniel a few minutes later. The five minute song was over too soon.

"Awesome! Molly and I love that one!"

James would have smiled if his face allowed it. "The band are friends of the family. DCL provided them lighting equipment for a New York concert which coincided with their honeymoon."

"Frigging hell! I'd love to meet them'l

"If we build some of the same equipment maybe you could? In Mattie's world Alana is a midwife when not performing. Maybe she'd be interested in Molly's life support machine?"

"Awesome! Was Many really the right reply earlier or is it Lots?"

"That would depend on what Many and Lots equated to."

Niska was clearly bump talking to her siblings. There are a few nods. "We have another for you. Dancing Queen by ABBA."

Even Laura joined in after a while, the Candlin family had a little dance with Molly. The drink flowed as they worked the way through the rest of the songs.

Matilda rocks a sleepy looking Molly in her arms. "That was so good. Fred you said there was a second gift for Molly? Only she's nodding off."

"It's upstairs on the factory floor. We'd have to go there, it's too big to bring down here."

"What is it?"

"Spoilers.."

"That word's contagious. Let's go see."

Back upstairs Fred takes them to one of the walls. It had a large set of pipes running towards the ceiling.

"Okayyyy. What are we looking at?"

The pipes all ended at the bottom with a ninety degree joint that ran into the wall. At the top the ends vanished into a box. The joints were in a diagonal line making some longer than others.

"In know! It's a pipe organ! You played at family weddings!"

"Not quite Daniel."

"What is it then?"

"Pipe bells. James, in Mattie's world is there a Mike Oldfield that made Tubular Bells?"

"There is."

"This is the first three and a half minutes, bells only."

A very soft version of the tune plays when Fred waves his hand past them, arm outstretched.

After they'd been listening for a while Mia smiles and nods at Molly. She had her eyes closed, a smile on her face as her tiny chubby fingers wiggled to the music. Moments later they stopped, she hitched her breath and did a long sigh. She relaxed.

"I think she loves if Fred, she's asleep with the happiest of smiles."

James waves, "Happy zeroth birthday little human. Can we talk business?"

"What sort of business?"

"Lithium business."

[Chapter-31](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-31-1)


	31. Chapter 31

Max took great passport photos for the three ladies. Sorting out application forms was easy enough, Laura could deal with those with her eyes shut. The blood packs were proving a lot more difficult.

"Why do they insist on bloody blood samples!" An angry Daniel threw another fake arm at the wall. The old shipping containers were proving useful. Any really messy jobs could be kept out of their nice clean and tidy factory. At least it wasn't real blood slowly oozing out of the many fake arms in the pile. "If we don't work this out Mia and Nis can't travel."

Fred agreed and spun his chair around to see the design criteria again. The list was simple enough; Top layer must puncture easily for syringe needle. Bottom layer must resist puncturing yet flex and move so it doesn't feel like the syringe has hit something solid. Pouch must hold enough blood to give a minimum of two samples. "We're missing something."

"Clearly. But what? Dear Santa, All I want is the solution.."

"Me too. I'm sure I'd have the answer in the other world."

Daniel slides down his chair, "Idiot, idiot, idiot.."

"I am?"

"Me not you. We've asked James what materials they have at their disposal.."

"Yes."

"But not _how_ they're used. Maybe he know something we don't?" He steps to the open door. "JAMES! ANY JAMES ABOUT PLEASE? .. Why's there never a forking James about when you need one!"

Fred turns his attention to the grubby PC on the bench and types a message to Veronica.

"They probably in a big circle polishing each other butts. Showing them Futurama was a big mistake."

"Not true, we polish our own butts thank you."

"Where'd you come from?"

"Laura's old container."

"What were you doing there?"

"Role play."

"Role play?"

"I was being a passport control and customs officer."

"Oh. They're keen."

"I believe the expression is Chomping at the bit. They'd be there now if.."

" _Don't_ remind me! Actually that's why I wanted to talk to you. Do you know any way to make something super thin, flexible yet strong enough to resist a syringe needle?"

"Yes."

"Do tell."

"If you'll promise to make me a WiFi board when you have the kinks out."

Daniel looks at the almost mirror like chest of the James and walks to the blackboard. In big chalk letters he writes James 56 first WiFi board.

"Thank you. Did this world have Knights?"

"Nights? Every night."

"Knights with a K. The sort that rode on horseback."

"Oh! Knights. Yes. What of it?"

"What did they wear to prevent getting stabbed or cut?"

"Chain mail?"

"As you Candlins would say, Bingo, there's your answer."

"How's that an answer?"

"Made a super fine thread of steel. Then weave it like a dense cloth. It will flex, resist a needle. Unless that needle is pushed _very_ hard."

"Awesome. How do we make a super fine thread."

"I suggest you turn to Lycos. Someone in the world has done it before, there are fine wires in the headphone cables Matilda broke."

"That's the easier option. We just buy a drum of suitable wire and strip the plastic. Some razor blades held almost parallel to the wire could shave it off."

"I suspect your mother could help with the weaving."

"Cool, thanks."

"Glad to have been of service again. May I return to the ladies?"

"Yeah, thanks again." 

Daniel phoned for an Uber and had his mother over in a flash, showed her a similar wire and told her what they needed.

"That's a clever idea. How many meters do you need? A roll is usually meter and a half wide by fifty long."

"Whoa! Way too much. If we had a square meter of the stuff it would be more than enough."

"Then you're better off making it yourself. Check out weaving looms on Lycos, make a miniature one."

"Thanks Mum, sorry to have dragged you out just for that."

"Nonsense, I'm here to see my granddaughter too."

"Cool, she's probably in the factory with Matilda."

"Can't you think of another name? It's so much more than a factory."

"It is. Like what though?"

"The hub, the hive, the.."

"Hive. I like that. And Angel is The Queen Bee. The Dancing Queen. Thanks Mum!" He gives her a kiss, "Fred, search looms please!"

Six days and a lot of experimentation later they had a steel cloth. With their plastic balloon shape bonded to one side it rolled up just enough to pass through a carefully stretched opening in their mockup arm. Progress at last! Fred operated his snake invention, slowly pushed the payload down towards the inner part of the elbow. "Unwrapping the bundle will be a challenge."

Daniel had a flashback to the tent in the ruins. "Would a gentle puff of air help inflate it?"

"It would. Can you gently blow on the tube please?"

Daniel picks the end up off the workbench, "Let me know when to start."

Ten minutes later it was in place, unfolded the right way around.

Fred picked up the bottle of blue synth fluid they'd saved when doing the switch to red. The air is sucked out and fluid used to partially inflate the balloon. He picks up a syringe and passes it to Daniel. "Do you feel like making some private history?"

"Yes. But I've got a good feeling in my gut about this one. Let's get the ladies." They walk together to the other container. "Niska wanted Mia to draw her blood, she should be the one to test it."

"She's also the head of our family."

"True." Daniel knocks on their door. "Can we have some help please ladies?"

Laura opens the door, "Hola Daniel."

"Hola Laura. Can the three of you join us? We think we might have the blood bag licked."

She turns to look into the room, "Mia, Nis, want to take a break from the Spanish?"

The two quickly join her.

Mia smiles warmly "Hola Daniel."

Niska looks confused. "Licked?"

"Beaten, defeated, overcome."

"Your language is overloaded with words that mean the same thing."

"Because we've adopted words from so many others I guess. Coming?"

Mia is passed the syringe.

"If you draw pure blue it's worked. It it's at all red it's failed. Be gentle with it."

Mia sits and looks at the arm, gently reaches out for Laura's hand. She pulls Laura closer and looks at her skin. "Laura has a few veins. The arm doesn't." She looks at her own. "We don't either."

Daniel looks at the ceiling and swears.

Fred gets up and grabs a length of tube similar to the one Matilda and Molley's machine had been linked with. "Can we make a tube from the balloon material? If we attach a couple by one end to the bag it will bulge the skin just enough to look like a vein. If Mia and Niska move in the right way it will increase the balloon pressure and make the tube stand out more."

"If we extrude it, sure. Can you pretend there is one Mia, see if our backing material does the job of blocking the needle?"

[Chapter-32](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-32-1)


	32. Chapter 32

Laura watched Mia show her passport to the checkin lady. Its pages are turned, the photograph checked.

"Have a nice flight Ms Elster. Next."

Niska was next.

"Don't smile please."

Laura could only see the back of her head but pictured her expression go blank.

"Ms Elster? Are you related?"

"Same father, different mother."

"Have a nice flight."

"Thank you."

Laura steps forwards and hands hers over. "If I could have a seat next to my friends please?"

"Certainly.. Mrs Hawkins." The passport is held up. "What's your secret?"

"Sorry?"

"My mother is your age and she doesn't look anywhere near as young as you."

"Oh. Um.. Very healthy living, no processed foods, no more smoking, limited alcohol. No sex."

"Enjoy your trip."

"Thank you."

James had been worried that the airport would have metal detectors. Laura was quite sure nobody used them in this world, terrorism wasn't a problem. Yet. Hopefully it never would be. They'd got some papers ready to say both women were full of surgical implants just in case, the first to get key-hole surgery from MLD Medical. They weren't needed. They didn't even get a pat down.

The steward shows them to their seats. "Welcome to Our Jets Now. Can I get any of you a drink?"

"Thank you.." Laura looks at his badge, "um.. Arthur, what's on offer?"

"Champagne, red and white wine, Talisker, that's a whisky, tea, coffee, fruit juice, I think it's pineapple today, ice water."

"I'll have a Champagne please."

"And you miss?"

Mia turns and makes eye contact, "A very sweet coffee please."

"Okay, and you miss?"

"I'll have a coffee too please. Lots of sugar."

Mia and Niska go into a low power mode under blankets after finishing their coffee to conserve power, started timers to activate small movement routines that would shift their positions slightly.

Laura reads the folder of papers again, wished she had a synths ability to speed read and retain information. The British Ambassador in Chile had agreed by email to meet. She had a prototype of the webcam with her. He'd be the first person outside of MLD to be able to make a video conference call without having to hold a phone up to his face. He'd agreed to host a meeting as his wife was a native of Chile, anything that helped the population was good as far as he was concerned. Fred had done extensive searches on the man, only good things had been reported about him. He was about to turn thirty. She was Miss Chile 2024, seven years younger.

"Can I get you anything to eat?"

Laura looks up at Arthur, "We all had a good meal before the flight thanks. Got any nibbles?"

"Mini pretzels?"

"Please."

"Another glass of.."

"Just a juice please."

"Righty ho. Do you think they'd want anything?" He nods at Mia and Niska.

"Um.. pretzels and pineapple for when they wake up would be nice."

"Brilliant! Three pineapple coming up. Nobody else wants it. A shame, it's still quite fresh from our Antigua trip. My wife loves it. Mum says we shouldn't carry so much but Douglas likes it too. He's retired but flies with us on that trip to hang out with Martin. He's our chief pilot now."

Laura's jaw drops. "Did the airline used to be called My Jet Now?"

"That's us. We had a brilliant stroke of luck, Mum found out our only plane was full of gold, some scam Dad was trying to pull, she used it to buy two more planes off a small firm going bust. We managed to get a lot of island holiday trade and grew from there. Getting through the depression was tough but the fleet is nine strong now. Where did you hear of us?"

"Oh, a distant friend my daughter talks to."

"Brilliant. Personal recommendations are always the best. Or so Mum says, they're cheeper than marketing." There's a bing n the distance to tell him another passenger wanted assistance. "Let me get the drinks, we'll be landing in just over an hour."

All three women did their best to be polite during the first meeting with the ambassador. Mr William Smithe.

He'd brought his wife Kenita along. "Tea ladies?"

"Please, we'll add the sugar. We've all got a very sweet tooth."

He pours five cups and passes them around. Laura takes sugar lumps and pretends to drop them into the cup and stir, pockets most of them for later.

"This invention of yours. How do I get it to work?"

"My daughter put instructions on our web site. Mld.com. There's a link for products."

He sits and types. "Webcam you say?"

"That's it."

He plugs it in and clicks the final link, lets the drivers load. "Now what?"

"She said there's a test program that lets you see what the webcam sees?"

"Mirror.exe?"

"That sounds like the one."

He clicks the link and clicks the OK button on the dialogue box that opens. A full screen image opens on the big monitor, the bottom of his pencil holder fills the screen. "Kenita, intentalo."

His wife picks it up and holds it out like a phone, holds it high and pouts.

More bloody selfie shots thinks Laura. With a heavy dose of cleavage. The woman had surgery at some point, she was sure of it. Nobody had a figure like that without a lot of expensive help. "We hope to be launching the final product very soon, you'll be able to talk to other countries via the webcam and your ExtraNet link."

"We'd be able to see each other's faces properly. Wonderful. No more terrible pictures due to 3G fading out. No more lies being hidden behind body language that can't be seen. I don't know about the general public but for us that will be a game changer. Assuming we can encourage others to use it. Now you wanted to talk to the local ministers about the salt lake?"

"We do."

"Can you explain why again in simpler terms?"

"The salts aren't worthless."

"Unless you have a client who wants to light billions of fireworks every day from here to eternity.."

"So they know about the lithium?"

"Lithium? Is that what it is? We just know it makes the fireworks brighter."

"We'd like to help your country understand the true value of it. It would bring prosperity to Chile."

"As you wish." He presses a button on his desk, "Bring the car around please Simon."

Somewhat annoyingly the government officials spoke reasonably good English. Mia went to say something, Laura got in first. "We're not naturally Spanish speakers, can we stick to English please?"

When they did drop back to Spanish a couple of times thinking that doing so hid information from their guests the three knew exactly what was being said. The many weeks of lessons came in handy.

"You would like one thousand tons of our firework salts? In return you will give us a new technology no more than one year later. Why should we wait for payment?"

"Son tan estupidos como Smithe esposa." What appeared to be the junior minister had just said they were as stupid as Kenita. A woman who knew what she wanted and how to manipulate her husband into getting it for her was far from stupid. High end cosmetic surgery cost an absolute fortune. If the Gods and mother nature had given her that body and not a surgeon she'd happily eat someone's hat. Where he got the money from was a question, his salary can't have been that high.. Focus Laura! "Because nobody else has the technology. Without us you'll never know what we know."

"And if the technology doesn't work?"

"It will."

"If it doesn't?"

"We'll take out an insurance policy."

James had said in Mattie's world the purest raw lithium salts were worth about twenty thousand dollars a ton.

The minister wrote a number on a pad and looked for his teams approval. "For two million US Dollars."

"Why so much if you just let it go up in smoke?"

"Fireworks today, tomorrow something better."

"One year."

"And what will you hand us in return?"

"The technology designs to process the salts in exactly the same way we do."

"Just designs?"

"And a sample of the end product."

"We will have to build our own processing machines?"

"Yes. It would be more cost effective to train and employ local staff, build them here. Then you're not dependant on us. You'd also have the advantage of having finished products to export to the rest of the world. All we'd ask for in return is continuing access at whatever the current market rates are. You're not the only country with these salts."

"No tan estupido." The minister wrote on both sets of paperwork and slid them towards Laura.

She kept her best poker face on and thought about MLD integrity. They'd get the raw material at a tenth of another worlds market value worst case. If things went to plan it wouldn't cost them any more than another flight and hotel stay to come back and hand over the sample and designs. Not a bad deal. The pen hovers as she reads every word. She knew from her past work that a full stop or comma in the right place could change the meaning of a paragraph drastically. She signs on behalf of MLD and slides them back.

"Your colleague's eyes, very pretty."

"The contact lenses? Nice aren't they."

"They are lenses?"

"That sit on the eyes."

"Can they take them off?"

Laura played it cool. "Yes, but there's no need. May I see your glasses a moment?"

Bill, bless him, had suggested they take a simple device to check the prescription of glasses, several sets of lenses and cleaning solution. They should take opportunities wherever they found them to spread the word. Glasses checked she looks through the boxes for a +1.5 pair. "Here you are." She hands over the box and a bottle of saline cleaning solution. "A gift from MLD."

The minister looks at the box, turns it to read the back. It had a simple set of diagrams that explained without words how to put them in, to take them out at night and store them in the small dedicated container. "One moment please." He gets up and leaves the room.

The most junior minister looks at the case, "How much?"

"For you, free."

"Me, no. My mother needs."

"We're here for another day, we could meet at dinner time or tomorrow morning?"

The young man nods vigorously. "Thanks you." He gets his phone out and dials. Before it answers the senior minister returns so he hangs up and puts it away.

"How do I look?"

"Wonderful. You can see okay?"

"I can." he shakes his head, "I go diving again!"

"Diving?"

"Scuba. My glasses don't fit under my goggles."

"That's good, we'd not thought of that use case."

"Can we have the design for these too?"

Laura sucked air through her teeth. "What do you think Mia, Niska?"

Mia could tell from Laura's life signs that she was faking it. "I don't know, it's worth a lot of money."

Niska leaned forward to see Laura, "A gift for good? In return for a better price on the lithium?"

The minister wrote half price on both contracts and slid them back, "Half price?"

"Thank you. Could you sign both amendments in the margin? We'll have Daniel send you details for the lenses this afternoon. Could we visit the lake and collect a sample?"

"Certainly. We will arrange transport for the morning."

[Chapter-33](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-33-1)


	33. Chapter 33

The young minister had met them at a local restaurant in the evening, the whole family were in attendance. His older sisters, mother and father all wore glasses.

Laura smiled, "You are cheeky, it's a good job we like you."

Glasses checked they all borrow the mirror Laura had in her case to fit their lenses.

Niska smiled, "Can we have a group photo please?"

The young man showed his teeth, "Sure pretty lady."

Niska raised an eyebrow. "Come on Mia. Laura, could you take it please?"

Niska felt a hand on her bottom as they bunched up. It wasn't stroking it or squeezing it, just resting there. Mostly harmless. An invasion of her private space none the less. A moment later dishes were brought to the table by a couple of waitresses.

"I hope you like it hot ladies. Chile's best chili peppers go into this dish."

Laura started waving her hand in front of her mouth after the first mouth full. "Gods that's hot. I'll be sweating like anything in a moment."

Mia bump talked to Niska, turned to their host, "Could you excuse us one moment please, we need the bathroom."

Inside Niska checks all the stalls, they were empty. If she ever had a seriously worried face it was on now. "How do we get out of this? We don't sweat."

"We could say we have the same food allergy our father did?"

"Something genetic? And what if the minister suspects something and has our DNA checked? We could say we're used to hot food."

Mia looks at the soap moulded into animal shapes. "Daniel has eaten the hottest of dishes for years and still has a light sweat. We need a diversion Nis. You're supposed to be the Ninja."

"Alternate me. I could start a fire. Or set the sprinklers off?"

"Matilda said we should always try to leave a place better than we found it. A burnt out or water damaged restaurant.."

Niska glanced at the mirrors. "I know. Not nice. Saying we'd been attacked would hurt trade too."

"We could ask someone at MLD to call us in five minutes with an urgent issue?"

"Would that need both of us?"

"That would depend on the issue."

Niska nodded, "I think a call is our best option. Least casualties. I hope Laura will understand."

Laura had understood of course, she'd been the one to alert them to the issue in the first place. Mia and Niska had managed a few mouth full each and said how nice it was before the phone went. They asked if the restaurant could let them have it in containers to go, they were needed in an urgent call with the team back home.

Mia asked to have a few of the whole chilies to munch on. "We'll see you at the hotel Laura."

"Tell Daniel he needs to give you some time off for saving his project."

"Will do."

Niska hailed a taxi and opened the door for her sister. 'Not a word, he's by the door, may be listening.'

'The restaurant owner?'

'The minister.'

'The creep.'

Niska leans forward for a second. "Hotel Renaissance por favor." As the taxi waits to pull into the traffic she watches a couple of young girls on Vespa bikes stop, remove helmets and kiss. She looks towards the driver with sad face.

"James should have kept that photograph of Niska and Astrid to himself. Still no luck tracing the Astrid of this world?" The car speeds away.

"My search is over."

"You found her?"

"No. It doesn't look like Astrid Schaeffer exists in our world." She looks away and gazes out of the side window at nothing on particular.

"I'm sorry Nis." Mia gently places a hand on her sisters.

"James took his estimation of the world back down a notch once we came to the conclusion." She takes her hand away and rubs her arm where the blood patch sat under her skin.

"He was helping with your searches?"

"Yes. He's quite sweet in his own way. So unlike Fred, Max and the human men."

"It must be strange being in another world that's identical in some ways, different in others. If Matilda's ability ever returned would you visit the other world?"

"And meet Astrid, return without her? I don't think I could take the pain."

The driver pulls over. "We here senoras."

Niska looks at the meter and hands him more than enough, "Gracias."

Up in their room Niska looks at the two narrow fold out beds, one to the side of Laura's double, the extra at the end. "The junior minister put his hand on my bottom when we had the group photograph."

"Your's too? How did it feel?"

"Warm."

"That wasn't what I meant."

"I know."

Mia takes the chilies from the take out bag and carefully wraps them in serviettes and puts them in her small suitcase.

"Didn't you want to eat them?"

"I'm going to try growing them under the new lamps in my room's courtyard." She gets the plastic fork out. "Does a really good hot meal taste worse when you can't sweat it out?" The fork and a cardboard box is passed to Niska.

"A question for Daniel."

Mia takes the second box and pops open the lid, tucks in.

They flick through television channels for a while, talk about going down to the bar.

The door lock clicks and Laura enters. "Hello ladies. Bloody hell that young man is a nightmare. I'm not sitting next to him in the morning, we need to make sure he's up front."

"When are they picking us up?"

"6AM. It's a long drive. I suggest you use the coils to get to one hundred percent before we leave and take a lot of sugar. I better get some sleep."

Twenty something minutes after getting into bed Laura gets back up and checks the air conditioning control. She presses a button a few times and thumps the panel. "Bloody hell. It's broken."

Mia got up on her elbows, "Is something wrong?"

"It's like a bloody fridge in here! And there's no extra blankets."

Niska rolls, "We could do what your daughter said she did with the sleeping bags. Layer them up."

Laura looks at Mia, "Would you mind?"

Mia gets up and pulls the sheets off her bed, "Not at all Laura." She layers her blanket so it covers the left hand two thirds.

Niska copies to cover the right two thirds. "Will three layers be enough?"

'It should be, thanks."

The three are looking at the design on the ceiling, Laura unable to fall asleep. "What do you both think of Matilda?"

Niska spoke first, "I like her a lot. I'm glad she and Daniel found us. She's growing stronger with Molly around, I had been worried about her health."

"Her mental health?"

"Yes."

"And you Mia?"

"I feel the same way. And Molly is adorable."

"Isn't she just!"

"Are you warm enough Laura?"

"I am thanks, it's like sleeping with two beautiful hot water bottles."

Mia smiles. "If the ceiling could look back it might think of the Oromo traditional flag."

"A flag? Why?"

"It has three equal stripes: black on top, red in the centre, and white on the bottom. The colours of our hair."

Niska rolls onto her side to face Laura. "I've had it with men. I'd rather you on top."

[Chapter-34](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-34-1)


	34. Chapter 34

At 05:15 Laura's alarm sounds. She woke to find she was spooning Mia, a hand cupping her breast, Niska was spooning her, a hand on her leg. Mrs Hawkins was quite literally the meat in a human synth sandwich. She chuckled quietly. She'd had just enough sleep to recover from their love making in the early hours. Having multiple powerful orgasms had been the last thing she expected to get on this trip. And definitely not at the hands and tongues of the synths. Her biggest surprise was that the synths could get them too. And even better with the food processor Fred had installed, recycling liquids into bodily fluids. Tasting Champaign when going down on Niska had been a pleasant surprise. Champagne with the slight hint of coffee and chilli oil. Her stupid husband could now stay away forever as far as she was concerned. The girls had changed places so Mia was in front and Niska behind. Even when they kissed with tongues exploring each others mouths she could taste it. She could get addicted to that taste. Mia had run fingers through her hair as Nis had got her to arch her back and rotate her hips, used fingers in ways nobody had on her before. The rest of the family all had hobbies. She decided that morning she'd become an author. Her first adult book would be about a sexually frustrated librarian getting an awakening. The book already had a title. Favourite Colours Of The Rainbow And How I Came To Love Green. "Are you both awake? We've got three quarters of an hour to shower and grab something to eat before the car arrives."

Niska runs her hand up Laura's leg onto her hip. "I'm awake. Is the shower big enough for the three of us together? We can sponge you down. Our skin is hydrophobic, we dry very quickly."

"Are you awake Mia?"

Mia twists and rolls around to face her, answers with a kiss then beautiful smile. "Can we change the flights, stay one more night?"

They were too early for the restaurant, took packs of sugar from a basket and waited for the car. Their shower had taken longer than it should, they'd not have had time for anything other than a cold continental breakfast anyway.

With the minister up front with the driver the three sat in the back. Laura kept eyes forward, placed a hand on the nearest thigh of both Mia and Niska. "I had a wonderful dream last night. I'm going to write a book."

Niska places a hand on hers. "I had a dream too, that I was rescuing you both from a situation. One exchange was noteworthy."

Mia leans forwards a little to see her, "Nis? What was it?"

"An armed man said You don't bring a knife to a gun fight! to which I replied That depends on who's carrying the knife."

"What happened next?"

"I woke up."

Laura kept her eyes on the rear view mirror and road ahead, ready to yell at the driver who looked to be focusing on his passengers a little too much. "Did you dream of anything Mia?"

"I did. A continuation of the morning's activities."

Laura blushes ever so slightly. "I've decided to take up a hobby. I'm going to become an author. I'll use my maiden name."

Niska gets her bottom in the very corner of the seat by the door and sits diagonally. "Why do you still use the name Hawkins?"

"I'd hoped Joe would come back. Now he's got a kid with another woman. My best legal work first time around was as Laura Hawkins, why should I give it up? There's also another reason now."

Both sisters in unison ask "There is?"

"If he were to come to the hive trying to get money I have grounds to drag him through the courts in a way he won't like. Adultery."

"Could he not do the same?"

"Not without evidence Nis. And I've not been with another man. A child is pretty good evidence against him wouldn't you say?"

"There's no escaping that. What's your first book going to be about?"

"A sexually frustrated android librarian who gets an awakening. I thought the name Anna Droid might be good. I did a quick search before we left. The first result was a sweet dressing up site for young girls. The second something I could imagine Toby masturbating over."

"Nice."

Laura heard the sarcasm in Mia's voice. "I didn't pay for any of the videos but the previews gave me more than enough of a hint. I'd rather him do that than resort to what some of the other men on the rig do."

"Like what?"

"Put their bits where they don't belong."

Niska laughed, "Animal, Mineral or Vegetable?"

Laura turned to see her, "Played the guessing game have you?"

"With a young Leo not quite a year before they vanished."

"Mineral. The rig's doctor had to get the hydraulic pipe cutters, the sight of the heavy tool made the man go ghastly white as blood rushed from his skin. The pipe just fell off as he had hoped."

"Isn't there supposed to be doctor patient confidentiality?"

"On an oil rig miles from help? He wanted to make sure _nobody_ was that stupid again. WATCH THE ROAD!"

The junior minister had curled up expecting the large lorry to smash into the drivers side of their MPV. They'd got away with just a broken mirror. "Concentrarse en el camino!"

"Si! Si!"

With his heart rate lowering the minister pulls on his seatbelt and turns to see them. "Sorrys about that. Three pretty ladies talking about such things. We play music yes?"

"Yes please."

After ten minutes of switching through stations he turns again, "Sorrys ladies, our songs are about romance and sexual."

[Chapter-35](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-35-1)


	35. Chapter 35

Molly wakes and cries, she was hungry again. Her mother and father turned in their beds and kept sleeping. She thought about the big blurry thing in the distance that made the yellow patterns and My Bad and Eat My Shorts noises. She kept thinking about it until eventually it made a bright light and hissing noise. She cried again.

"Gods Molly, what time is it?"

Daniel rolls over and checks his watch. "08:45."

"It feels like the middle of the night."

"I turned off the artificial courtyard sunrise."

"Why?"

"I thought you needed the sleep Angel."

Matilda rolls over and rewards his kind thought with a kiss. "If you shower first I'll give her a feed."

"I wonder how the three got on last night?"

"Well I hope. Slept on the remote again?"

"No, it's on your sideboard top, look."

Matilda rolls the other way. "Oh. Another glitch or is Veronica wanting something?"

"No idea. You've not made this screen part of the cluster have you?"

"Nope."

As their ride slowed Niska looked at the small aircraft by the road side. "We're not getting in that are we?"

"Si. We can drive if you don't mind seventeen hours on the road. And seventeen back. The lake is many miles north."

Laura looked down at her lap and swore under her breath. "How many in that?"

"Two. Maybe little mores."

"Can we go and get something to eat first please?"

He looks around, "Did you see shops or restaurant?"

"No."

"Good jobs I have hamper then."

The plane touched down just after 9AM on the lake bed itself, came to a gentle halt a little over a kilometre from the edge of the south bank.

"We early enough, it won't melt shoes. It gets very very hot by middle of day."

'Worth knowing. James will have issues cooling with his current build.'

'Yes Nis.'

The pilot opens the door and goes to the rear of the plane, gets the hamper and tools out. He had the door open for only a couple of minutes and they could feel the heat. He passes the hamper to the minister and closes the door.

"You trust him to get the sample for you?"

Mia nodded, "I do, but I'd like to see him do it to understand the physics of it. How much effort he uses, things like that."

"Jump out, yes?"

Mia does so. The lake bed was as dry as a bone and quite hard under foot. In the distance the appearance of water was nothing more than a heat haze. The pilot hands her the empty kiln jar and uses his trowel to dig into the salt. "Cuanto cuesta?

Mia indicated four fifths of the jar. The man nods and gets a heaped trowel full. He motions for her to rotate the jar and he carefully slides the lot in and turns the trowel so that it falls. "No get on hands yes. Very very.. drying."

Mia didn't have to worry about it but faked concern and handed the jar over. Another five scoops and it was full enough. He screws the lid on tight and drops it into a bag he pulls from a rear pocket. "Para ti. For you."

"Gracias."

As the engines spun up Niska got the pilot's attention. "What sort of aircraft is this?"

He'd heard the question so many times from passengers over the years it needed no translation. "Cessna Citation Mini mark three. Made for us."

"Why have jet engines on something so small?"

"Airport charges standing tax on wings span. Bigger aircrafts _verys_ costoso.. hmm.. expensive?"

"I see. Wouldn't you need a lot of fuel?"

"Si. Under tank whole length of airplane and in wings. Which it good not to crash. Crash. BOOM!" he chuckles.

"Have you ever crashed?"

"Me still here, yes?"

The minister turns to see them. "We has only lost one in all the years we has been flying them, was created a birds strike."

The three ladies sat in silence the whole of the return flight listening to the engines and eating. The pilot took them along the coast over the sea. He had the young minister explain that the birds would be over land making nests at this time of day, hoping to get mates. They'd be over the water later in the day when the sun was lower.

When they got back to the MPV it was baking hot. Laura started walking back to the aircraft to get inside. "We're ladies not hogs. We can't be expected to cook in that heat. Please put the AC on and let us know when it's cool enough."

The minister apologises and gets the engine running and AC on full power.

Laura leans forward and looks at the vehicle, "Where's the driver?"

"Our new driver will be here soon."

"New driver?"

"He will not be so distracted by the pretty ladies. We hope."

"Why? Is he blind?" It was meant as a joke.

"His eyesight is perfecto, no lovely green eyes for him. He is homosexual."

Laura rolls her eyes and sits back, "Hopefully he doesn't like pretty boys like you then."

"We have.. a understanding.."

"Good."

Matilda screwed her face up, "Gods Molly, how do you produce such stinkers!"

Molly smiled and gurgled. She knew what she'd done, just couldn't admit it. Her vocal cords were proving a challenge. Noises she made didn't match her expectations and no matter how hard she tried they didn't come out right. Mummy and Daddy were rubbish at sign language so far. That wasn't helping. They could understand their HECK Code only with help from Veronica. Kicking out with both feet at once was just interpreted as an excited wriggle. Yes and no kicks would have to do until she could make words properly. She'd spent many days before the bright light came listening to every little sound the box amplified. Her head buzzed with ideas and noises. Even in her dreams it wouldn't stop. There were strange tones and whistles when she was close to the shiny man they called James. He was cold. Uncle Max, Mummy and Daddy were warm. Uncle Max had strange noises two. Rhythmical noises that changed when he talked and moved. Mia, Nissy and Fred were the same but she didn't spend as much time with them. She knew she'd been able to make the thing with the yellow shapes come on. Maybe she could try something with Uncle Max?

"There, all clean and fresh now. Don't you dare fill that straight away you cheeky little pickle."

Molly smiles as she's picked up and sucks her mothers face, wipes wet fingers over her neck.

Matilda gives her a kiss back. "Shall we see what the boys are up to?"

Kick.

Laura got into the middle again and watched Mia climb in beside her. "Oromo traditional flag ordering again?"

Mia gave a playful smile. "Nilmir."

"Sorry?"

"Nis left, Mia right."

Niska climbed in and pulled the door closed, saw the looks on their faces. "Have I missed a joke?"

"Nilmir. Nis left, Mia right."

Niska looks left at the minister and driver talking to the pilot. "Have we got the room again tonight?"

Laura raised an eyebrow, "We bloody well better have, our bags are still in the room and they've charged the company card for the extra night. And you both tasted of champagne. I want more."

"And the flight?"

"We have open return tickets."

Niska grinned and licked her lips. "Let's have an early dinner, _lots_ of champagne."

"You want to get me drunk?"

"We want you more relaxed."

"Why?"

"Spoilers."

[Chapter-36](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-36-1)


	36. Chapter 36

At dinner Mia asks for a third bottle.

"Steady on, I'm already feeling the effects."

"We'll take the bottle to the room."

The waiter brings it to the table. "Any desserts ladies?"

Mia and Laura decline.

Niska scans the menu, "I'll have a raspberry ripple sorbet. Can the bill go on the room please?"

"Certainly."

Minutes later they're heading for the lift, Laura steady enough on her feet. Niska scooped a spoon full of sorbet from the bowl and slowly took it from the spoon, never once taking her eyes off Laura.

Mia takes Laura's hand and goes to lead her into the lift, when she realises it's not empty she quickly lets go. "Buena noches."

"Buena noches." The elderly woman turns to her husband, "What strange eye she has dear. I've never seen that green before."

Mia smiles, "From your accent I'm guessing you're American?"

"We are dear, how rude of me, so sorry."

"It's alright. I'm wearing contact lenses."

The husband frowns, "Lenses? On the eyeball itself?"

"Yes sir."

"Name's Bill Murray. Not that one, this one. Always looking for new investment opportunities. Have you representation in America?"

"Not at the moment."

The lift dings, "Darn things too fast. Our floor already. We'll take the scenic route. Hold my stick would you Velma?"

His wife holds his walking stick while he fumbles with his wallet. "My card. I've done well in life. My philosophy is to keep margins low, not be greedy. The money will come from high volume."

Mia accepts the card and shakes his hand, "Your philosophy fits well with ours."

"You have a philosophy?"

"We all do. We work for MLD. Moulding the future. Our philosophy in a nutshell is gifts for good."

Laura looks through her clutch, "Our card. We'll be back home late tomorrow."

"Thank you my dear. We'll not be home for a week or so, but I will call."

The three wave as the lift door closes to take the couple back down to their floor.

Door closed Laura turned and headed down the corridor to their room, "Result. We'll have yanks in green soon. Two Bills. We'll need nicknames."

Niska hurried after her, spoon in one hand, bowl in the other. Mia looked down at the bottle in her hand and paused for a moment. A second later she followed at speed.

Laura opened the door and was grabbed by Mia. Not in an angry aggressive way but still firm and in control. She was taken into the bathroom where Niska started on her blouse buttons. Mia pulled it out of her skirt from the back and undid her bra.

"Bloody hell you're fast!"

Niska placed a finger on her lips and smiled, "Shhh." The blouse and bra were off in seconds. "What rhymes with raspberry ripple?"

Before Laura could get the word Nipple out a finger was back on her lips. Niska took the spoon from the now softer but still cold dessert and touched it against Laura's chest. Her nipples went hard in seconds. The sisters must have been talking using their head bump thing, Mia was next to Niska a moment later and they were both licking and sucking.

Laura had spoken with Matilda about Mattie, how being in a mechanical body must have ruined aspects of her love life. She'd been surprised to hear it was quite the opposite. The phrase 'Light me up' came to mind. Her body hadn't felt like this in years. Had those cakes of Mia's helped here too? She felt a pair of hands working the button and zip on the back of her skirt, the sisters were working together as one using an arm each. The skirt fell to the floor. Her silk knickers joined it seconds later. She felt a hand gently rubbing her, a finger slide inside while a second worked on her clitorus. Joe at his best had worked on two erogenous zones at once, had never managed three.

As if her mind was being read Mia stopped licking and gently played with her nipple with her right hand, moved to start kissing. Their tongues touched. She went weak at the knees and wobbled. Niska stopped and moved away. Mia picked her up and carried her to the bed. A moment later she felt something cold and hard touch a thigh and gasped as a little wetness followed.

Mia spoke softly, "You said we tasted of champagne, we want to experience the same."

Their long night of passion was only just beginning. Most of the Gods Laura believed in would not approve of sins of the flesh and plastic. She hoped they were looking the other way, busy with more urgent matters.

[Chapter-37](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-37-1)


	37. Chapter 37

At 10:58 there's a nock on the door. "Puedo pasar?"

Laura kept her eyes closed, "What did she say?"

"She asked if she could come in."

"Gods no!"

"You don't want a foursome? That's the beautiful young one we spotted dropping sheets into a basket yesterday."

"I think we should keep our secret to just us three. We don't want MLD being linked to corrupting young girls."

Mia replied to the chamber maid in Spanish, asked that she return in half an hour.

"You said half an hour?"

"Yes, it's almost eleven Laura. We'll need to check out soon."

Laura springs into action, "Bloody nora Laura! Overslept! Um, okay, quick shower. And _just_ a shower." As she scrambles from the middle of the bed she takes the bottle to wash it. Lawyer Laura kicked in. No way was she leaving any prints, lipstick or other marks on it. "And then let's find the shops, we have a few hours before we need to head to the airport."

Matilda rocked Molly's crib as she coded. "I wonder what grandma's been up to? I hope the weather's been good and they've done some sight seeing. James can't wait to hear how they got on."

Molly puckered up and moved her lips like Maggie Simpson.

"Hungry _again_?"

Kick.

Matilda got her into a sling and typed while she fed. "Why won't this blasted thing compile?"

Outside the hive James One was chatting with Twone. He'd shown his brother the picture message received from Laura. It was a jar with a PostIt stuck to the side. It had four words written in blue ink: One thousand tons agreed. To the side was a drawing of a thermometer popping and a number: 36.. "I'd said one thousand expecting it to be negotiated downwards to something more reasonable."

Twone hands the phone back. "Do they have solar panels in this world?"

James talks to Veronica over his radio link. "Ver says yes. What are you thinking?"

"The lake is flat isn't it?"

"I'd expect so."

"Then we convert the storage containers we're not using. One as a refrigerated work area with no bottom so we can reach down to the salts. Others to store the salt collected. We'd need a way to pass the material from the working container to storage."

"Something like a large version of Fred's operating snake?"

"Possibly. Whatever it is the cold air must not get out or our cores may fail."

"I think we've been looking for the wrong solution. There's a simpler one."

"There is?"

"We have solar panels charge batteries by day, we work at night under floodlights when it's colder."

"Yes, keep it simple stupid as Danny would say."

"Daniel too now."

"And how do we survive the day when not mining?"

"Sleep charge in a refrigerated container. With a floor." James talks to Veronica again and shakes his head, "Ver says she's checked satellite images, there's no Panama Canal in this world. Not even the narrow original."

"Nuts. And bolts. We're going to have to sail it all the way down the east coast and back up the west. Daniel might not like that expense."

"We should wait for the sample to get here first, see what volume one thousand tons will occupy. It may be better to process the lithium there and bring finished cells home in batches. Where would we store that much raw material at the estate?"

"Agreed. Chartering an aircraft that can fly direct may be better too. Although if Laura returns with only a small sample it will be hard to prove our technology before shipping it to the lake."

"We can always ask them to make an additional trip for further samples. It's a shame we don't have Flyer One, with permission to take salts we could fly in direct."

The three ladies passed a shop with music playing inside. Niska stops to listen. "Who's this singing?"

"Sorry Nis, no idea."

"I won't be a moment."

Mia and Laura watched children playing with small wooden spinning tops while they waited.

Niska returns, "Got it. Commander by Kelly Rowland and David Guette. I have a theme tune." She winks then sings, "From here on out I'll be your Commander." She smiles, "That's to be directed at James by the way, not you Laura. They're selling a lot of dance clothes imported from Germany, England and France."

"It doesn't look like the place to have a dance club, I wonder where they'd wear it? Did you want to get something?"

"No thanks Laura, I had a quick look, I'd like something more my style. Matilda suspects James has the skills of Mattie's Gem James but is keeping it to himself for the moment."

"Why?"

They walk on.

"She thinks he's planting little ideas to see what interests us, deciding what to share based on our level of enthusiasm."

"I guess that makes sense. Gosh it's hot."

"January and February are their summer months. Their winter is June and July."

"Hola."

They all turn to see a little girl, her hand out holding a large collection of friendship bracelets.

Mia crouches down, "Hiciste estas? Did you make these?"

The girl nods, points to a store.

"Puedes mostrarnos? Can you show us?"

The girl takes her hand and looks to see it was safe to cross, leads her across the road. The others follow.

The girl's mother waves her in as the girl takes them to her low little table. She had many beads and thick cotton in every colour imaginable.

Mia gets beside her, asks if she can make three for them, all the same. Black, red and white. The girl points to her collection of beads, Mia selects nine, three for each. "Ellos toman cuanto tiempo? They take how long?"

The girl looks at her mother.

"Twenty minutes each. Ten thousand Peso."

Mia didn't blink, that was less than twenty US dollars. "Volveremos en una hora. We'll be back in an hour." the cash is handed over.

"Gracias!

Outside they walk away from the hotel again.

Niska looks around, "I wonder how developed this area is in Mattie's world? She did say the village outside the estate is more like a town in her world."

"It's probably very different."

Laura gets a smile from a passing man. "Not a word to my family about what we did last night, okay?"

"Okay."

"Promise? If either of you tell I'll die of embarrassment."

They both promise.

"At my age I thought my sex life was over."

"What is age but a number? My cakes are reversing the ageing process are they not?"

"Yes. Thank you Mia. It's a good job I'm not working with my old team, they'd be asking far too many questions already."

[Chapter-38](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-38-1)


	38. Chapter 38

The hotel offered them a late checkout, they'd look after the bags while they shopped.

They spent their time going through the few clothes shops. The summer ranges were already being marked down to make room for autumn stock. Mia bought a lovely patterned green, yellow and black dress, Niska a denim dress with dungaree top, a plain white t-shirt to go underneath. They strolled back to the shop to see the little girl. The shop was closed, a sign saying they would be back soon.

"HOLA!"

They turn to see the girl on the other side of the road, she starts to cross.

Laura screams, "No!"

They hear the car horn as Niska races across at breakneck speed, scooping the girl off the ground. The car's passenger side mirror slaps her hard on the bottom and breaks as she gets to the pavement.

The mother is hysterical, talking at a speed Laura can't cope with. She starts to cross with Mia, "What is she saying?"

"I believe she is saying Niska is a god or angel sent to save her daughter."

"Oh Gods Nis, don't start another religion, we've got more than enough!"

As they join them Laura notices a crowd is building, "Play it cool. Niska you're a trained athlete. Not an angel. Also head of MLD security. If anyone asks about your eyes we'll show them the photo with the minister."

Niska played it cool, said her security job training gave her a heightened sense of awareness, her training as an athlete the speed. She could only go _that fast_ in very short bursts. The crowd wanted to reward her, she declined, after they insisted she said a very sugary lemonade would be reward enough.

She rubbed her bottom and looked at her hand. No sign of fluid. 'I think some sensor wires have snapped. I'm going to need Fred's expertise to fix them. What is it with bloody mirrors!'

Mia grins, 'Picking up some language tips from Laura are you Nis?'

The little girl hugged Niska and thanked her over and over, promised not to do it again. When her mother brought the freshly squeezed lemon the girl started spooning sugar in. "Otro?"

Niska stirred it in and watched the sugar dissolve, gave the girl a nod. It's repeated, again and again and again.

'Thank their gods we don't get a sugar rush!'

As Niska drank to help get her charge level back up the girl tied the bracelet on her right wrist.

"I didn't notice you were left handed Niska?"

Niska grinned, "You weren't paying enough attention last night then Laura."

"My senses were somewhat overloaded."

Niska finishes the drink and kisses the girl on the head, "Gracias."

They say their goodbyes, explain that they have a flight to catch. The girl's mother insists her husband's brother's girlfriend takes them. She could get her there quickly. The three agree to return with their bags shortly.

Bill settled with the front desk Laura picks up her carry on bag. "Shall we then ladies?"

The car that was waiting for them was not what they expected for a taxi. 

Laura's jaw dropped. "Greased Lightning!"

Mia frowns, "Greased Lightning?" 

"The red version they dance around, the one that shows up at the end of the movie."

"Which movie?"

"Grease the musical."

It's driver was youngish, dressed up in an outfit that matched the era. She spots them coming and starts the engine. It had clearly been tuned well, the engine roared. Bags stowed she turns on the radio, music from the film plays. She turns to Niska, "Valentina tells me you like speed?"

"Who is Valentina?"

"The girl you saved."

Niska turns to see her, "Estar seguro Valentina! Be safe!"

The girl smiles and waves.

"I do like speed. As long as you don't talk about crashing or break any mirrors."

They pull away and as soon as they're clear of the crowd their driver pulls her shades out of her hair, puts them on and and stomps on the accelerator. Thankfully apart from the stereo the car had one feature that wasn't screen accurate. Headrests. The engine roared as twin superchargers rocketed the car forward and passengers back into their seats.

Niska had to talk loud to be heard, "We're not in that much of a hurry!"

"You're not enjoying this?"

"I'd rather get there in one piece."

"You mean alive?"

"That too."

"What's with the green eyes?"

"You speak good English."

"Acting school in England."

"You're an actress?"

"Was. Your eyes?"

"Contact lenses."

"Nice."

"You understand what they are?"

"Lenses on the eyes by the looks of it."

"Good! You're the first that hasn't questioned it or needed an explanation."

"My husband would have got it too, he was an engineer, built this car."

"Was?"

"Died of a heart attack while sat on the toilet."

"I'm sorry."

"Shit happens. That was one of his favourite sayings. Him passing there felt strangely poetic. My current boyfriend spends most of his time travelling with work. So where would my friends get these lenses?"

"From us. Our firm makes them."

"And you're from England?"

"We are."

"Are they expensive?"

"Not at all. You say you were an actress, what do you do now?"

"Play sports, shop, read, write, drive, anything to keep the boredom away."

"You don't need to work?"

"My husband was head engineer for a big firm, invested well. I'm not that rich but comfortable. The interest on the savings keeps me going, just. Got a card?"

"Laura, we can go one better can't we?"

Laura turns around to see Niska, "What are you thinking?"

"The glasses lens tester Bill gave us, it's not expensive is it?"

"I don't think so."

"And the case?"

"Inexpensive." Laura turns to the driver, "I'm Laura as you just heard, you've been talking to Niska, my other friend is Mia. What's you're name?"

"Me? I'm Constanza."

"Can you pull over a moment?"

Sure.

Resting the case on the back of the car, Laura gives Constanza a demonstration with a pair of scratched glasses Bill had given her to keep with the kit. "You don't need to be an optician. Let the optician do all the usual eye health tests. As long as it's a simple prescription take the number and find the set that matches, see, they have a number in 0.25 increments."

Constanza picks out a box, looks at the label then diagrams. "You can't keep them on?"

Mia turns and rests her forearms on the back of the seat. "We suggest they take them out, they can get really hard to get off otherwise. I had too much champagne last night and forgot mine, getting them off will hurt tonight. Taking them out also gives the eyes a chance to rest properly."

Niska sat forward a little and put her head right back, looked up at the sky, "No prizes for guessing who was at the same party and made the same mistake."

[Chapter-39](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-39-1)


	39. Chapter 39

At Heathrow they wait patiently for the bag with the jar of lithium to come through on the conveyor belt. When checking in there'd been a sign listing things that shouldn't go in the cabin. High on the list was, of course, fireworks. Laura decided they shouldn't push their luck and played by the rules.

As they wait for a taxi Mia unzips the bag and examines the jar. The lithium salts looked to have shrunk. "Interesting."

Niska crouches down next to her sister, "What happened to it? It was up to about there when we packed it."

Laura turns to see, "Did your Leo eat cereal?"

Mia looks up at her. "Yes?"

"Ever wondered why the bag inside the box doesn't appear full?"

"Not until you asked the question. I just assumed that's how it was."

"When the bag is filled at the factory it's fuller, filled to a weight not volume. Then as it's moved around on lorries, supermarket trollies, the back of the car getting home, the content settles."

"But the salt was solid, I stood on it?"

"I'm sure it was. But the bit the pilot dug up got disturbed."

"So James should vibrate the salts to settle them as they pack.. the.. containers. May I borrow your iPad Laura?"

"Sure. It will take a minute to boot. What do you want it for?"

"I have an idea for you. A slightly modified one."

"Do tell?"

"Matilda received the synthetic skin formula from George via Mattie. It's flexible and durable, human skin friendly, nontoxic. If we add a bigger version of whatever makes a phone vibrate. In a sealed unit that has a coil inside so it charges without being plugged in. It would be easier to sterilise too."

Niska watches as Mia draws. "How do we make this and keep it secret? Asking Fred for the formula will get lots of questions."

"We don't need to ask Fred, we have access to the file shares."

"And how do we make the shape?"

"We make our own 3D printer. I've seen the design, it's simple. I can use the PC in my room to control it. I'll make vases and pen pots to throw their attention." She turns the iPad around to show Laura. "What do you think?"

Laura frowns at the shape, no idea of what it was. "You'd make it out of synth skin plastic? That shape? Why would.. " She spots Niska twitching a finger. "Oh my! I think a lot of men would be kicked out of the bedroom if.."

"You think we should sell them?"

"Not as part of MLD, Gods no, that would get questions. We should set up a company of our own. Nilmir."

Niska smiles at Laura, "NLM. Our flag order. If anyone asks what it stands for we say New Love Machines. There's one." She nods.

Laura frowns hard and turns, "Eh? Oh! TAXI!"

The three sat in the back in their usual order, Laura turned the drawing into a photo, downloaded a safe app and saved it away, deleted the sketch. "The pin is 6567. NLMS."

Mia looked at the photograph, "I wonder if Mattie has anything like this in her world?"

"Possibly. There's no way I'm asking my daughter to ask her even if she could."

Niska sits diagonally, "Maybe the answer is already amongst us, the question waiting to be asked."

"Of James?"

"No, Veronica."

"Do you think she can be trusted to keep our secret?"

Mia tries to keep a deadpan expression, "She's a sentient AI programmed with the three laws, why shouldn't she? And where do you think I got the idea from in the first place?"

[Chapter-40](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-40-1)


	40. Chapter 40

Matilda watched Laura pack her bag. How had six months passed in the blink of an eye? Busy didn't come close to describing how the estate had been. Manic activity and creativity did. "Why the jumpers?"

"It's their winter now."

"Oh. Of course, other side of the equator. How many James are travelling?"

"Six."

"Why are Mia and Niska going?"

"They came on the first trip. We want to see if we can get more lens adoption."

"Right."

"It was nice of you to give the airforce the PTSD idea, let them research and own it."

Matilda shrugged, "With no university background it would look odd for me to suddenly show a fully baked solution. Still, good got good returned."

Laura absentmindedly closed the suitcase lid to zip it up. "Yes. It's nice of them to lay on a Hercules to get James and the equipment out there."

"They didn't just for us. They were heading further south to collect something, agreed to take a slight diversion. Mum?"

"Yes dear?"

"Have you forgotten something?"

Laura looked up at her daughter, "Have I?"

Matilda's left eyebrow raised and she looks down at the thing that had rolled against the side of the case. "Some sort of heated roller?"

Laura moved to see what she was looking at and went bright red.

"Mum?"

"It's um.. something to ease tension."

"Shaped like that?"

"Mats I'm not as old as I once was. That sounds wrong but you know what I mean."

"Yeah, don't overdo it, you looking like a sister would be frigging weird."

"Twenty seven and fourty something okay?"

"Yeah. I guess."

"Who are you doing it for? Still hoping Dad comes back?"

"Gods no. He can stay well away. And I'm not doing it for them, I'm doing it for me."

"Them? Who's _them_? Mother. You're going redder than a frigging post box."

"Oh Gods."

"It's.. it's not Fred and Max is it?"

"No, it's not them."

"Mia and Niska?"

Laura wonders what to say, if anything.

"Oh my Gods! It is!"

"Mats.."

"You didn't say no! You paused!"

"Matilda!"

"Frigging hell Mum! Mattie said her sex life was okay. Does that mean the sisters have a good one two? Ten Gods in a phone box! What's it like?"

"Um.."

"Alt Niska and her Astrid are quite open about their relationship."

"They're worlds apart. Quite literally."

Matilda shifts Molly to the other hip and picks up the bright pink device with too tight a pinch. She drops it immediately. "What the.." over the shock she picks it up again. "Frigging hell that's got a kick!"

"Shake it."

"Eh?"

Laura sighs, "Just shake it."

"Oh. Variable power levels?"

"Yes. Now pinch it in the middle again to turn it off."

Matilda grins, "A heated roller it's definitely not. Dan's going to be away for a month travelling around America. Make me one and I'll keep your secret."

"You're blackmailing your own mother?"

"Nah, that came out wrong. I'll keep the secret regardless. I'd still like one. I've been curious about old Emily. Apparently with her sensor design fault she was addicted to sex. And her toys."

"Toys?"

"I'm guessing the name was for the equivalent to this thing. What are you calling it?"

"Love Machine."

"What? That sounds like something Toby would wank off too."

"Mats!"

"You can't say you don't know. And I've done my fair share of masturbating in the past. Hell I couldn't get any decent man to hang around until I met Dan. Just call it a toy Mum, it'll sound less like a frigging robot. And don't get all embarrassed, enjoy yourself, you're not hurting anyone." She grinned, "It brings a new meaning to Girl Power."

"Hmm?"

"You could start a whole new business.. I know that face. You have, haven't you?"

"Have what?"

"Set up a new firm."

"Um.."

"Who are the directors? The three of you?"

"Um.."

"What's it called?"

"NLM. Um.. New Love Machines."

"Gods Mum. You seriously need to work on your poker face and drop the ums. I want in. Who designed it?"

"Mia adapted an idea from Veronica."

"Frigging hell! She and James are full of surprises!"

There's a knock at the partially open door, "Are you ready Laura?"

Matilda opens the case and drops the toy in, pulls the zip around and winks, "She is now Mia." She mouths Enjoy Girl Power.

The two army lorries that were driving them all to the base were big and noisy. Laura could hardly hear herself think. She got out her tablet and switched to their private app. Matilda said it would forever stay in beta to avoid being seen by others on iTunes. It was only six weeks old. Already updated twice and working brilliantly thanks to a joint effort from Matilda, Daniel, James and Veronica.

The Bump App allowed her to dictate or type messages. They'd be encrypted and sent to the cluster over 3G, from there they'd be decoded, translated into the correct format and sent as individually encrypted messages to the recipients over 3G. The Elster family wore belts that acted as low power 3G to WiFi bridges. Anything that came back could be read or played via text to speech.

She typed and hit send. Moments later the sisters frown. A reply came back.

'Mia: You didn't die of embarrassment then.'

'No. Thankfully. Mats said I went redder than a post box.'

'Niska: She'll keep our secret?'

'Yes. She wants one of the machines. She says we should call it a toy not a machine. I can understand why, toy implies fun, machine implies work. What do you think about Enjoy Girl Power as an alternate name or slogan?'

'Niska: NLM. Naughty Love Moments?'

Laura laughs and has to correct badly typed spelling before tapping send. 'No Loser Men! I like your idea Nis, keep them coming.'

'Niska: Are you sure you're spelling that last word correctly? ;)'

Laura felt the most flushed and guilty she'd felt in ages, hesitated. She typed her message slowly. 'Naughty Love Moments toys from NLM. We'll have you cumming back for more.'

The sisters just sat there and smiled.

The flight was far noisier. Even with the big orange ear protectors. They were getting close to the coast and flying very low, 3G would drop soon.

Laura tapped her iPad. It was lighter and ran longer with the new power cell James had made her. A world's first. For this one. It was thinner too with a new back. They'd run tests for a few more months before sharing the news with Apple. 'I'm looking forward to seeing Valentina and Constanza again.'

'Niska: How many packs of lenses have you shipped her now?'

Laura switches to her spreadsheet and back. '2575. With the crate onboard 3575.'

Mia smiled.

'Niska: Nice! People are preferring the MLD green to locally made clear then?'

The last bar of 3G dropped. 

"Bloody thing. Pick your moments don't you." She nodded and reverted to the sign language they'd all been learning to talk to Molly.

[Chapter-41](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-41-1)


	41. Chapter 41

Laura woke with a start as her shoulders were shaken. "MRS HAWKINS!" The loadmaster was right up in her face. "MRS HAWKINS. WE'RE ABOUT TO DO THE DROP. THE COMMANDER SAID YOU HAD SOMETHING YOU HAD TO DO?"

"THANK YOU! YES! CAN YOU HELP ME GET TO THE SIDE OF THE CONTAINER?"

The loadmaster unclips her four point harness and helps her to the narrow gap. The panel was thankfully close to the end. James and his brothers had cut down a container and welded it back together, carefully sized it to fit the C-130J Super Hercules. Processes had been run through with Veronica again and again. It was a one shot. It had to work first time. It was their winter and the lake wasn't dry. The RAF were happy to get the container to the right coordinates, just not land. Laura slid the panel cover up, pulled a small mirror from a pocket and held it at forty five degrees to the display. It was already in mirror mode, putting the status text the right way around in the reflection. She got her code in and tapped the Enter button. The green power up button was last. Cover slid down she turns to see the loadmaster. "READY!"

"PREP DONE COMMANDER."

The air pressure dropped noticeably as the cargo door was opened. He helps her back to her seat and gets the buckle done up. "READY COMMANDER!" He waves with both hands.

As instructed in the briefings Laura takes a deep breath and holds it, pushes her ear protectors on tighter with both hands. The sisters copy her moves. Air rushed in from opening doors up front. They're still subjected to a partial vacuum as drogue chutes yank the container straight out of the back of the aircraft. Mattie and Arthur would have been proud if they'd known anything about it. The ladies watch it vanish from view as the aircraft climbs fast with it's heavy payload gone.

Inside the container the heavy duty MLD controller circuit finished it's primary countdown and started powering up auxiliary systems and the team. Milliseconds later there's a series of timed explosions. Large gas bottles fly out from the underside of the container as a thick rubber skirt inflates. Nothing in the container moved. Nothing could. Every little space had been taken up. Surrounded by the tiny plastic beads that would be injection moulded into battery shells the James were packed in super tight. This was a mission for his team only. A human would have suffocated.

The tune to a Basement Jaxx song rang out as the container hit and aquaplaned across the lake. James One finished his boot up the same time as the others, the container still moving fast. "Okay are you ready, I'm ready."

They all sang together. "Don't let the worlds cave in on you. We can live on, but are miss-ing you. Don't let the worlds cave in on you. We can live on, but are miss-ing you. Don't let the worlds cave in on you. You get what you give that much is true. Don't let the worlds cave in on you. You'll turn the worlds away from you. WHERE'S HER HEAD AT? Where's her head at.."

As the reworked song in honour of their friend Mattie continued the drogue chutes slowed the container's race across the lake. The controller circuit cycled waiting for the accelerometer to report the speed had dropped sufficiently.

There's a beep and the sound of motors pulling bolts. The singing stops. High pitched beeping alerts them to the next stage starting. James, the original Military Unit Synth in Mattie's world, had designed the inflatable air-dropped hovercraft. As the MUS shared all knowledge the James One of Matilda's world also knew. Therefore all his forks knew of it and the tent Matilda and Daniel had slept in. Two successfully inflated structures. Time for three in a row.

There's the hiss of air being pumped in. If Daniel had sealed them in properly the container would open out flat like a cardboard box, the primary hinges along the long sides. The movement of the panels wasn't powered by motors, only the pressure of the workshop inflating inside.

"Status."

The other five check in.

"Good."

As the thick plastic double skin structure grew and spread out the metal floor grew too. The left wall fell onto its floatation bags, the end section hinged to the base did the same. The right wall fell next pulling the roof with it. The four top, right, bottom and left panels locked into a rigid base as more motors got other large bolts into place. The last of the end panels, hinged to the top, smacked down onto the awaiting rubber floats.

Originally the design had both end panels hinged to the base. The resulting structure would have looked like a fat cross from above. Matilda and Daniel had seen it and said no.

With the plastic beads spread out James One was able to see the other five. "Twone, Three, zip the wall to close section T into place please. Four, when the pellets are moved anchor us to the lake bed and deploy the lightning rod tower please. Five, you're with me on pellet duty."

The pumps that had helped inflate the structure also drove what Daniel had described as negative pressure fan-less pumps. James had started to question how that was possible given the fan in them until Daniel got drawing on his blackboard. It was a vacuum cleaner of sorts. In some ways like a jet engine. Or a Dyson air multiplier fan. A collar inside a metal pipe forced a narrow circular flow of air in one direction; away from the open end they'd hold. It would travel along a flexible pipe and out into the top of the sectioned off zone T. In the tube that air dragged other air along with it causing a pressure drop behind it. With the air forced in fast enough a usable suction was created. It was quite feeble in comparison to a household vacuum cleaner but enough to pick up small plastic pellets. There were no moving parts in the tube to hit them, hence Daniel's use of fan-less in his description. Once the partial vacuum got them the few centimetres into the metal pipe they'd enter the fast airflow and be on their way.

James One had his in his left hand, he'd held it the moment the pellets started being dropped into the container. At the estate Frank had supervised a crane operator. James and his brothers had strapped in, the container was lifted and turned on end. Laura's best contribution had been the word settle. She'd winked at the sisters and said Rice Krispies. Daniel had looked confused making her explain that the inflatable structure was like the inner plastic bag, the container the box and pellets the cereal. They'd added some vibration via a JCB digger to get the pellets to settle in nicely.

Button pushed a valve turned to direct air to his cleaner and the pump started. They'd tested it with Veronica in the CAD system then in real life with a tray of pellets. It worked then as it did now. Five started his up and got to work.

[Chapter-42](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-42-1)


	42. Chapter 42

Constanza met them at the runway. "Hola!" She laughed, "Travelling in style ladies? What was the inflight entertainment like?"

Niska gave her best impression of a human doing an impression of the constant noise. "Hours of that."

"No nice eye candy to look at?"

It gets head shakes.

Laura shivers and turns to see the loadmaster wheeling the crate down the ramp. "He's all right I guess, not really my type. We slept most of the flight. It was too noisy to talk." She unzips her puffer jacket and takes out a lenses box. "For you. A special one off from Daniel as a thank you."

Constanza turned the box to read the front. +0.0. "I can look like Mia and Niska? Very nice! Thank him for me will you?"

"I will. I hope your boot is empty, we've got a lot of boxes to get from the crate into the car. We'll need to fill every other available space."

"No need, Valentina and her father will be here with a truck soon. The headmaster has given her the day off."

"Why?"

"He and a lot of the staff are wearing lenses, some of the older kids too. You'll see a lot more green eyes these days."

The sisters had a special +0.0 set made too. Light blue for Nis and dark brown for Mia. Just in case they were spotted late at night. Niska had a feeling in her core.

Crate slid ever to the car the crew of four join the ladies.

The flight commander was holding a strip of paper. "Mrs Hawkins, the PTSD treatment dream your daughter had, the rooster as she called it. I've just had word relayed from base, they say our RAF medics are most impressed. They've just this morning treated a couple of chaps that went down in Afghanistan. Engine failure by the way, nothing hostile. They say the chaps are showing positive signs already. That's five treated so far. They're wondering if she's available to work on a project for a few months?"

"Work with you?"

"Not me, the technician working with the medics. Something about her software skills? They lost me a bit, can you ask her to get in touch? Something about emails not being answered?"

"I'll have words right now, thanks."

There were two things he'd seen in Mattie's world that James had taken inspiration from for this mission; The TV program Georges Amazing Spaces and the film Inception. Specifically the folding or packing of a structure. All of the machines were anchored to the floor. The floor that was now locked flat. Not that long ago that floor had been folded into a rectangular box and some machines had hung upside down from the ceiling, others had come sideways from a wall into the space. Everything had been located to make the most efficient use of space both during shipping and production.

With all the pellets stored away James One nods to the others, "Time to anchor and put the tower up please. Five can you help me with our next task?"

One side of the container had been different to all the others. It had a vital bit of equipment they'd need to work for the mission to succeed. The solar barge. It was two extremely large panels hinged into a V. The two sides didn't meet due to another rubber inflatable being sandwiched between them. At one end a weatherproof connection secured an armoured mains cable. The other end of the cable would attach to a large UPS the machines would run off. The James would also attach to it to recharge.

It was James One's hope that there would be enough power gathered to run the machines and the team of six during daylight hours. That would depend on a lot of sunlight. Being winter he accepted that many of the team may have to voluntarily shut down to save power. The inflatable structure was made of a semitransparent plastic allowing some light to get through. Enough to work by at least.

He and Five undid the straps and gently lowered it to the floor. "Three, if you could open the door."

"Boss. The water's deeper than expected."

"How deep?"

"Enough to be a problem for us. Our legs would be fine, we'd get water into our chests, the salt may cause corrosion."

"Bolts. Anyone got any ideas?"

The panel was so large it had to be carried at an angle to get through the doorway. The door and frame were the only solid parts to the upper structure. To fit through and not jam the lower edge had to be kept parallel with the floor. As more of the thing got outside it needed to be supported from out there.

"I'll sacrifice myself."

One turns to see Two. "This early in our mission? No way. Another idea."

Four thinks about the inventory. "We have five rolls of repair tape. We cut a slit in the wall and five of us push it out at speed. One of us opens up the air line to inflate it."

"As soon as we cut the slit the structure will start to collapse."

"We didn't zone it?"

"No. With hindsight a mistake."

"It could be months before the water goes down."

"It will be. It relies on evaporation. Another idea."

"How fast can the air pumps work?"

"Faster than they ran for the initial inflation. That was thirty percent. Forty six to run the pellet cleaning pipes. Your thoughts?"

"How is the speed controlled?"

"The main controller board sets the level for the inflation. Then the button on the cleaning pipes set the higher level. We can reprogram it to go to one hundred."

"Can one of us control the power to any level?"

"Not directly. But it could be pulsed on and off. So with a bit of work, yes."

"Then we can simultaneously cut and seal a large slid up the side, join inner to outer sheets. Whichever end we want to push it out of."

"The end closest to the UPS."

"Then when it's inflated and giving us power we tape up the slit."

"Alright. Two, Three, I want you learning air pump control."

"One?"

"Yes Five?"

"How much of a ledge do we have outside?"

"That end? Ten centimetres. Your idea?"

"Before we anchor we use the rope. I'll walk around the edge and puncture the wall, pass the rope through. One of the team hold it to help stop me falling in. I can help cut and hold the sheet in place while you and Four tape the inner and outer together from the inside."

"Nice thinking Five. Two and Three on pumps, Four and Six taping, I'll hold your safety rope. Let's do it."

Valentina sat on the lorries loading lift and swung her legs, looked at the three women still wearing their friendship bracelets. "Hola Laura. My name is Valentina. I am eight."

Laura smiled, "Growing up fast. Are you learning English at school?"

"Si.. Yes."

"Your accent, it's very.."

"Lovely."

Laura turns to see Mia. "It is. Lovely. Do you know where your teacher is from?"

The girl nods, does a mime of using a bottle opener and giggles, "Cork."

"Do you have any hobbies?"

The girl nods, "Dancing."

"What sort?"

"Ballet."

Mia does a pirouette. "I love ballet dancing!"

Valentina gives her a clap.

Laura and Niska look at her in disbelief.

"What?"

"When did you learn ballet dancing?"

"James told me.. that Mattie's friends do it. So I did some research."

"And he didn't tell me?"

"Maybe you've not had the right conversations with him Nis? Maybe you should be nicer?"

"I am nice."

Valentina gets her legs swinging again, "Who James?"

"Who is James?" Mia thinks about the six dropped at the lake. "He's a friend back home."

"How old is he?"

A very good question. Physically in their world not even Valentina's age. But as an AI or consciousness? How long had the MUS been stood in the warehouse in Mattie's world waiting for Silas to hack them? It could have been years. "We don't know. Our sort of age."

Valentina's father joins them and waves a sheet of paper, "Todo listo!"

The girl smiles and talks slowly thinking about the words, "Puppa says we are all done."

Laura brushes her shoulder, "We'll see your family for dinner at the hotel okay?"

"Yes!"

Her father helps her off the tail-lift and folds it up. 

James Five crouched down and helped the team work on the lower section of the slit. It was taking a while, they had to work on a small section at a time to minimise the pressure loss. Both pumps were being pulsed at full capacity. "What can you pass through for me to stand on?"

James One gets down on to one knee, sticks the other through. "If you stand on my leg does that give you enough height?"

"Yes, just. Balancing will be hard. The wind is growing."

"Two, can you get another rope? You and Three can hold from the sides."

Laura was glad Greased Lightning had a soft top clipped on. She'd have frozen. "You're joining us for dinner aren't you Constanza?"

"Miss a dinner with you lot? Never. What time?"

"Seven?"

"Great, loads of time. Dress code?"

"Whatever you fancy."

Constanza laughed, "Be careful, we don't want to frighten anyone."

"Why? What sort of clothes do you have?"

"I've got a monster suit from a B movie I made. I was starting out, hoped it would lead to other work."

"Did it?"

"No. I've got some nice things from fancy dress balls. My husband used to host loads of them. I miss them. Fancy coming over to mine first and checking them out?"

Laura turns to see the expressions on Mia and Niska's faces. "Yes, yes we'd like that."

[Chapter-43](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-43-1)


	43. Chapter 43

The group looked like a circus troop by the time the last of the taping was being done.

"Good. If we can attach the air line and unwind the power cable, get ready for the push. Charge levels?"

None of them were low. Yet.

One of the pumps was used to suck the air from the inflatable between the panels getting it closed further. They carefully removed one of the thick bolt mechanisms that had held the container in a box shape and set it on the floor. Two volunteered to hold it in place. With Five back inside the ropes were taped close to the the top of the slit and used to pull the opening into a V shape.

"One?"

"Yes."

"Anyone noticed a problem?"

"If they have and haven't spoken I'll be annoyed. I take it you have?"

"The hinge is at the bottom. When it inflates the solar panels will be underneath facing the lake bed."

"Bolts bolts bolts. Move the ropes to the bottom and invert the opening."

A number of machines had to be unbolted from the floor and moved to give space to turn the V over, get the hinge at the top. Another bolt was undone. Two and Three sat and held them in place with their feet. If anything went wrong a hand to operate machines was more important than a foot. The panel edges would run along the bolts, the mount on each preventing the V from opening up.

With everything and everyone in place James looks around the group. "This needs the fastest strongest push you've ever done. This needs to leave so fast gravity won't have a chance to make it snag the structure. If it does it will rip it wide open and we've failed. Two, the millisecond you see the last of the panel leave you hit the pump control. We need it inflating before it touches water."

"Sure boss. I think we should act it out a few times."

"Agreed, it's a shame we don't have Veronica with us to run some simulations."

Niska looked at the contents of the large room. "How many!?"

"I've lost count. Some I've not worn yet. If you see anything you'd like to try on feel free."

"Thanks but I don't have the same body shape."

"Then go for the ones with stretchy materials. If there's not something that fits I'll pay for dinner."

Niska gives her a frown and smile, "That's a very confident sounding statement."

"I'm a confident woman. Well, a lot more now than I used to be."

"How come?"

"Selling the MLD lenses has me networking more."

Niska finds a black dress with sheer panel that started at the left shoulder and wrapped several times in a spiral to the hem. "I'm curious to see how this looks on.."

"Go on then."

"On you."

"Me?"

"Yes."

"It fits. I'm more interested in seeing how it fits on you."

"I don't think it's my type of.."

"Why not? Try it."

"I don't.."

"What is your type? Give me some clues."

"I'm not sure I have one."

"Everyone has at least one." She parts some clothes and steps through them. A moment later she's walking backwards, towing a tall mirror. "My junk room." She sets up the mirror. "There you go. Try on everything that looks like it might fit, find your style. Same goes for you too Laura, Mia."

Mia smiles, "I'm good thanks."

Laura nods, "Same here."

"Oh. I was hoping this would be fun. Want us to leave you too it Niska or shall I bring some glasses and wine up so we can all have a gossip?"

James looked at his team, "Okay are you ready, I'm ready."

The five say ready.

"On one. Five.. four.. three.. two.. ONE!" The four not on the floor holding bolts shove with every actuator at full power. "Keep it up!"

There's the sound of a pump running up to full capacity as they go crashing into the inflated wall. They bounce back into the space, land in a heap.

"Everyone okay? Five?" James One had landed on top of him.

"I think I might have got a dent. Lots of scratches too but otherwise systems seem okay."

One gets to his feet and helps Five up. "Everyone else?"

"We're okay boss."

"And the barge?"

"Um.."

"What do you mean Um Two?"

"It sank boss."

"WHAT!"

He steps to the slit in the wall, it was nowhere to be seen. "BOLTS!" He looks at the UPS to see the power meter showing roughly twenty percent power input. "It can't be that deep, it's getting power."

"We're teasing you boss. It's in the shade of the container. Winds have blown it around us."

"Thank Mattie's Gods for that. Can we pull it closer and tie an anchor on, push away and anchor ourselves?"

"Sure boss."

"Why do you keep calling me boss? We're equals. You're all forks of my code."

"Sure boss. You are One though. How are we going to get any processing done if we can't reach the salts?"

[Chapter-44](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-44-1)


	44. Chapter 44

Laura accepted the glass of white wine and looked at Nis in her tiny whites. "Nis?"

"Yes?"

"You can keep the underwear on to see if it fits but something tells me you have to go commando to wear that dress out."

"Commando? Like a Commander?"

"No. It means no underwear. Otherwise you'll have straps and things showing."

Niska wriggles as she lowers her knickers, steps out of them and picks them up.

Constanza gives her a surprised smile, "You're not ashamed of your body are you. I bet the men like that."

"Men? I'd not wear it for any man.. I'd be wearing it for me and.. how does that song go?" 'Help me Mia!'

'Me, myself and I?'

"For me, myself and I."

"Good for you." She moves dresses one by one. "Now this. This would look stunning on Laura."

"I'm good thanks, no.. ooh. That's rather nice!"

"Try it on then. No panels on this one. Now Mia, what can we find you?"

James Two had been gently pulling on the barges power cable. Doing so had got it back around to the right side of the container. It had also spun them around. Faint shadows inside were in different positions. "One, maybe we shouldn't anchor? We should let the winds drift us slowly to shore where it would be shallower."

Three steps to the zipped up wall. "Do you think this needs to be two sheets thick? Or would one hold?"

"One may bulge out a lot, but it should hold, what are you thinking?"

"We cut one layer out and make a sail. We hold it above the structure to double the area being pushed."

"And what do we use as a mast?"

"Us. We use tape and rope to create points we can hold onto, one stands on another's shoulders. We deflate the structure just enough to get a footing around the edge."

"Risky."

"Worth a shot?"

"How much tape do we have left?"

"Three rolls."

"If we use it sparingly and bind the metal rods we'll cut for battery terminals, could we make a strong enough mast?"

Mia wriggled into an elegant ballgown, smiled at Laura and wished she could head bump with her. "Could you do up my zip please?" Zip fastened she turns to the mirror, "I like it. I thought it wouldn't fit, somehow it does. It's not that stretchy."

Constanza puts her hands up, "You got me. I'll sign a confession. A number of the dresses here are for you."

"How.."

"Your daughter Laura. Said it's something Mattie would do?"

"Meddling Matilda. I'm not getting angry at this one, they're stunning."

"This one is for you too Niska." Constanza pulls out a long jumper dress and very wide belt. "It's a bit better for day wear in this weather. Oh these too, I hope they fit." She hands over a long box. "She said her friend Mattie likes a lot of french wine, you do too, so there's a white sweat shirt with gold logo for you Mia."

"I won't apologise for my Champagne taste?" She turns with a questioning face to Laura.

"I've not said a thing!"

Mia turns back to their host, "What is the meaning of this?"

"That you like Champagne, the good stuff not any old bottle. Can there be any other meaning?"

"Oh. I suppose not."

Niska zips up the last of the boots and adjusts the belt around the tan coloured jumper dress. "Now this is me. What Mia might have been thinking about is the taste of our saliva. Something inherited from our father."

'Niska!'

'I'm not saying anything more than that.'

Constanza looks at Laura, "You don't looked surprised, were you aware of this?"

"We've spoken about it, yes."

[Chapter-45](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-45-1)


	45. Chapter 45

Matilda looks at her phone again. "I feel like a fraud Dan, that I'm going to be found out."

"That's not the sort of thing these people will want to hear. What made you phone them today? I hope Max can cope with Molly."

"Mum chasing me to check my emails."

"You've added to the code haven't you? That's not a fraudulent claim."

"Modified isn't the same as written."

"What if you and Mattie are one and the same soul, just different manifestations of it?"

She pulls a face that says he's mad. "You what?"

"Step back outside a moment."

"Dan, they.."

"Come on Angel. Just humour me for a few minutes." He gets up and walks.

Matilda grabs her handbag, huffs and gets up. She follows him to some railings. "So what's your world shattering theory Einstein?"

He takes off his jacket. "Imagine this is your soul."

"A thin black jacket?"

"Stay with me." He holds it against the railings. "What if reincarnation exists." He pushes at one point so the jacket pokes through the gap. "Here you are, in this world, being someone in a past life. Look at the railings a bit sideways on."

"M'Atilda the Hun, Queen ruler of the known world, remover of heads."

He pulls away and flattens the jacket. "Ha! Good job your evil streak is suppressed or gone. Then some time later here's you, your soul, popping up in another world, no memory of the previous existence." He pushes further along. "What if stars aligning or something else in the universe created twins?" He holds the jacket to the railing top with his chin and pushes parts of the jacket with both hands. "Same soul protruding into two worlds at once."

"You've been at the mushrooms from.."

"There you are! Mrs Candlin, we were worried you'd had second thoughts and left."

She turns to see a man in a white lab coat. "Hi, sorry, my husband was just trying to explain an idea."

They follow as he turns and beckons them back to the building. "By holding his jacket to the railings?"

"Yeah, it's a bit of an abstract concept."

"Did the jacket help?"

"Um, yes. Yes it did."

"Good, jolly good. Being able to describe difficult concepts in multiple ways is a good ability to have. People are all wired differently, what one person gets another might not. We've got some paperwork for you to sign. There are a few things inside our lab you'll not have seen before."

"Like what?"

"Sign the papers and I'll show you."

They enter a small room off the reception area. There's a desk, chair, papers and a pen. Matilda sits and reads. "Huh? Bits of this sound back to front."

"Daniel isn't it?"

"Yes?"

"You need to read it and sign too."

"I do? You're letting me in?"

"You do the hardware while your wife does the software. Am I wrong?"

"There's growing overlap now but I guess so."

Matilda carefully removes the staple and hands him the first sheet. "It's like a two way NDA from Mum. Why.." She reads his name badge, "Ollie?"

"All in good time."

Together they get through the pages and sign. Matilda carefully puts the staple back through the holes and bends it back into shape. She gets up. "Now what?"

"Follow me please. And if you could clip these somewhere where people can see them." He hands over ID badges with their photographs and names.

"What the.. where'd you get our photographs from?"

"A government agency has been watching you ever since the estate sale went through. They tried to contact you at your old address."

"Which agency?"

"The British Security Service."

Daniel's colour drains a little. "MI5?"

"That's the chaps. We had to know we were handing things back to a company we could trust."

Matilda stops and watches the men walk on. "Hand _things back_? What the frig are you talking about? Has MI5 stolen something from us?"

Ollie shakes his head, "They'd not actively gone out to steal, they ended up getting some good intel. Knowing that David's work has been picked up by someone who actually understands it and has a good moral compass.."

"Whoa whoa whoa. Hold on.."

"We know a lot about the robots. The James as they call themselves. Brilliant work you two. David lent our people some designs, even with the greatest minds trying to get it to work it's still not comprehending anything."

"He gave you his designs?"

"Not me personally. Or the RAF. The British Army in general. You're only talking to me as you decided to donate your PTSD idea. A wonderful idea. What made you think of it?"

"It was a rooster. It just flew into my head and decided to stay. Never had one of those moments?"

"Once or twice. Nothing on that scale though. As I was saying the top minds from all over the British Army have been trying to get the robot to work, they're missing some key element."

"You're building a robot?"

"Have built. For defence. You may have noticed our numbers are not what they once were."

Matilda walks slowly towards them. "Will they be armed?"

"Not as something built in."

"But you expect them to carry weapons?"

"They'd not be much good at defending without them."

"I disagree. I think if you built them big and strong enough they'd do fine. Do they plan to make them three laws safe?"

"Three laws?"

"Not read Isaac Asimov's I, Robot?"

"No?"

"Get a copy. The nutshell summary is that he initially created three laws for his books. One: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Two: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Three: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. He later added a law zero to widen the scope: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. So good luck asking it to pick up a weapon!"

"So if you asked it to shoot a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his chest it would decline and let the bomber kill lots of innocent civilians?"

"I expect it would refuse to take part if it can't work out what to do. But in doing so it's inaction would allow others to come to harm. It would be conflicted."

"I see. It makes it all rather pointless. No rules and they can turn against us. Have the rules and they're not much good to the army. Maybe you can't help us after all."

"They could me medics, there are all sorts of roles that don't involve fighting. But as a soldier, yeah, rather pointless I think."

"Okay, you still need to collect your things."

"What things?"

Ollie swipes his ID card past a reader and a door unlocks. He ushers them in. "CPU designs, circuit designs. His will said ownership passed on with ownership of the estate. Which was probably supposed to be his son Leo, but since he didn't specify it well enough that's now you."

There was a human shape under a large sheet.

Dan looked around the room, took in all the many designs on the walls. "You've made the CPUs?"

"Yes. He'd been working with some university contacts on a new multicore design for his robots."

"And the government didn't think the general public would like access to it?"

"I can't comment on that. Here's his design book. Take it." A very large and heavy book is pulled from a shelf.

"Mind if I take that at the end? Is that your robot?"

"Yes, sadly. Management has changed. The previous unit head thought we should make a woman soldier that would look less hostile, be able to infiltrate enemy units." He steps to it and picks up an edge of the sheet. "Anatomically Superior Thinking Robot Infiltration.."

"Astrid!"

Ollie turns and smiles, "Yes, the acronym is Astrid. David and his colleagues did some research with another university group. They used the DNA of still born children and projected forwards into adulthood."

Matilda shivered. In the long chat with Mattie she'd been told about their David's research, that he'd used the DNA of living children. Hence Mia and Gemma. The David in Matilda's world may have realised the problems doing so would create. But dead babies? She shivered again. "Go on then, let's see her."

Ollie pulls on the cloth.

"Oh. My. Gods. She's beautiful!"

"It's all in the book. How to make what he called their build machine, their skin. The sensors, skeleton, eyes, they're the tricky bit, hair, everything. It's the coding that's let us down." He taps Astrid under the chin. Her head raises. "There's supposed to be a power up noise. She'll look at you and maybe frown, not do anything else. Lights on nobody home. Let me get the torch." He steps to the other side of the room.

Daniel gets close to Matilda and whispers, "Could it be as simple as the first James issue? A in and A out?"

She shrugs. "Maybe."

Ollie returns with the torch. "If you observe when a light is shon in her eyes the iris is closed down. So the eye to CPU core link is working. She just won't do anything useful. If you take her hand she'll be guided like a blind person. She won't do anything she's asked."

"What's in her fact store?"

[Chapter-46](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-46-1)


	46. Chapter 46

Valentina was waiting with her parents as Constanza, Laura, Mia and Niska enter the restaurant. She races over and gives them all a hug. "I love your boots Niska."

"Thank you. I love your dress, very pretty."

"Thank you. This is mummy. Her name is 

Elina. This is daddy. His name is Diego."

The three all greet her parents in Spanish, compliment them on their lovely daughter.

A waiter joins them and leads them into the dining area where a round table had been set up for the six of them.

Valentina immediately grabs a bread roll and butter. Her mother goes to tell her off, Mia and Niska grab a roll each and start munching.

Niska gives the girl a little wink. "I'm sooo hungry! What would you recommend?"

Valentina frowns for a moment working out what she'd been asked. "Gazpacho is my favourite. And bean.. " She whispers with her mother. ".. Stew."

Mia suggests that with so many nice sounding dishes they should order some of everything and share.

A young officer races up to the Candlins, "Can I get you a wheelchair?"

"She'll be fine, she's just had PTSD treatment. The drugs take a while to come out of the system."

"Sure? It's not a problem, would only take me a moment."

"Thanks but we'll manage."

"It's really no bother, you could hold on to it for a while too, we've got loads of the things."

"Oh. Go on then."

Daniel watches him dash into the building. "He had no idea Angel. She'll blend in just like Mia and Niska." He rests the heavy book on the floor, waves a hand in front of Astrid's face. "No response. Think you can fix her?"

"If it's audio in and out then it's a job for you and Fred. If code.. I'll see what I can do for her. To think their old boss wanted her scrapped for parts. Good job Ollie and his team didn't feel comfortable with the idea. I didn't expect them to just hand her over though."

"You'd gone to the loo. Ollie said he wanted her out of there. Only a small handful of people knows she exists. As legally we own the rights to David's work and she's derived from it.." He sees the uniformed officer in a window reflection and stops.

"Here you are, must dash, I have a briefing in five."

"Thanks." They watch him run.

Daniel smiles, "And all that time I thought it was the Nanny police. It could have been MI5."

"Don't beat yourself up about it, both could have been looking for me."

Daniel figures out and applies the wheelchair breaks. "Now let's see if we can get Astrid to sit."

They take her hands and guide her back into the seat.

Matilda looks at her husband, "That felt a little too easy."

"He did say she can sit and stand, do a basic shuffle walk when guided."

"Which implies?" She knew the answer, wanted to know if he did.

"That her basic functions are running fine?"

"Exactly. Let's get her to the car."

"Did you believe what he said about MI6?"

"That they want me working for them? Yes."

"Will you?"

"I don't think so. Not now. Maybe help them with operational technology ideas. But not full time until Molly's older."

The structure finally came to rest on the bank of the lake. One could see the salt bed inches below the water. "In you come! Take care, if anyone falls the could still get salt water in. We need Daniel to make us some better weather proofing."

With them all inside Twone holds up the bit of tape they had left on the second reel. "If we cut this into thin strips we should get some protection."

"Good. Who wants what colour? If you could do Four first so he can anchor us and get the lightning rod tower up a safe distance away. We don't want a wind change getting us back into the middle, we could be stuck there for months. Get the machines running, we're about to make history. Twone, how do you fancy scooping up some salt when you're taped up?"

"Yes Sir! Mind calling me Two? New body and all.."

"Certainly. You've all got your stations to work from, check they're all good."

Laura held the wine menu to the side and pointed, "Tres botellas por favor."

The waiter turned to Valentina and smiled.

"Another orange juice please."

A little over two hours later Laura's phone chimes. She ignores it.

Mid sip of Champagne Mia turned to see her, 'The family all know we're away. I wonder who that's from Nis?'

'It's in her pocket. I can't see.' "Expecting messages Laura?"

"No."

"Might it not be important?"

"If it was important they'd call. Who's for another drink?"

Elina shakes her head, "Thank you for your hospital, Valentina has school tomorrow, Diego and I better take her home."

Valentina pulls on her mothers dress to get her closer, whispers.

"Sorrys, hospitality not hospital."

Niska looks at Mia, Laura then Elina, "What is your hospital like?"

James Two handed the raw salts over to Six. "Work your magic James."

"Thank you."

One looked around the team. "Anyone needing a charge boost get plugged in. The storm clouds have passed, it's safe to charge."

[Chapter-47](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-47-1)


	47. Chapter 47

Hours later as Laura climaxed for the umpteenth time her phone chimes again. With her breathing heavy she takes a moment to catch her breath. "I need a break ladies." She scrambles off the bed and goes to the phone.

"Will you be cumming back for more?"

Laura smiles at Mia, "What do you think?", she reads the messages in reverse order. "James has the Inmarsat satellite phone working. The world's first lithium cell made on site is charging."

Niska wriggles up the bed and sits against the headboard, "Great news! We won't need to eat so often with better batteries."

Laura swipes to the second message. "Oh. That chambermaid you had your eye on Nis, would you prefer her to another synth?"

"Another? David only made us four?"

"What if I told you there's a fifth? Named Astrid."

Niska comes racing across the bed at a speed that took Laura by surprise, the phone was almost dropped. "Is there.." There was. A picture. "She's beautiful."

"She's very pretty."

"Was there text?"

"Yes." The phone is handed over.

Niska sits on the end of the bed and reads. The phone is handed back. "Thank you Laura. I feel awkward now."

"Why?"

"I now have feelings for three women. You, Astrid and Martina."

"Who?"

"Our chambermaid."

"You approached her?"

Niska looks a little hurt, "No, we'd agreed I wouldn't. She approached me. The last time we were here we left the two small beds looking un-slept in. She worked it out. We also left three different hair colours on the sheets."

"Bloody hell Laura Hawkins, should know better. Well there's nothing stopping you being good friends, just don't get too close and break her heart. Let her know you have someone back home."

Matilda and Daniel are in the conference room with Max and Molly, looking through the large book of designs.

Daniel turns a page and gasps. "Whoa!"

"What is it?"

He turns the page up carefully from a corner and looks through it. "Just what I thought it was."

"Which is what?"

"The silicon layout for a CPU. Look, there's multiple pages, each is a mask showing a layer of silicon, each different. You can make a CPU directly from these is my guess." He turns the pages, "And here's a list of all the machine level operations." He turns another, "And here, this says it's code to check out every function of the chip to see it's working properly. There's one, two, three pages of it."

"Frigging hell the font is tiny. On an A2 page that's nuts. The odds of getting a typo are astronomical."

Max looks, "I think it's written for something that can do OCR. A PC with a very large scanner. Or someone like me."

"Cool. Could we make one of these chips then?"

"I'd like to. No idea how to scale that down to something the size of a small fingernail."

"Yet."

Daniel looks at Max, "Right, yes. Yet. Wills and ways."

One of the James comes racing to the door. "She's woken up!"

"Who?"

"Laura, Mia and Niska are abroad. You and Molly are here. How many other She could I be talking about?"

"Veronica?"

"She's always awake. Astrid. Who else!"

The Candlins race out of the room to the lift. 

"Frigging hell. She must have been faking it."

"Why would she do that?"

"She wanted to make love not war? How would I know?"

They see the lift is heading down to minus two. "I hope that's not her."

James calls from the doorway, "That should be James Eleven checking on glass pressure."

"Stairs then Angel."

"My personal gym, how nice." She shoves the door.

"So this is where you escape to?"

"Yeah. You get your roosters in the shower or with the sound of running water. I get a lot more when I'm the one doing the running."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I had a bitch of a code issue the other day, just couldn't get it to compile. I slipped on my trainers and ran down to minus two, up to the ground floor.."

"You ran the whole height? From the bottom to top?"

"Yeah. And carrying Molly. I'm probably fitter than you now."

"Gods. I better get doing the same."

Matilda yanks open the door and steps onto the factory floor. It was obvious where she was, surrounded by James. "Give Astrid some space you guys!"

The crowd parts, a James turns to see Matilda, "She looks exactly the same."

Astrid looks confused, "Exactly the same as what?"

"It's complicated. Why are you responding now?"

"I'm not in the army. I thought I'd been taken to another but hearing all the many conversations the James were having I realised you're different. I can understand complicated things. Please explain. Exactly the same as what?"

"You're the same as Astrid."

"Are you saying I'm the same as myself?"

"The same as the human called Astrid."

"I'm a copy of someone? Can I meet her?"

"Um.. no. Not at the moment. I wish you could."

"Why? Where is she?"

"In another world."

"You mean in another country."

"No. Another world. There's another me, calls herself Mattie. There's another Niska too."

"Who's Niska?"

"She's your partner. Or rather your alternative self's partner is alternative Niska."

"If I understood you there's another world, where copies of me and this Niska are partners? Two females?"

"Correct."

"I find this hard to believe."

"Matilda?"

"Yes James."

"Do you have the photograph of them both that Mattie sent through?"

"Um.. yeah. One sec." she turns and pulls out her phone. "Here it is. This is you both."

Astrid smiles at the photo for a while, then looks serious again, "How do I know this hasn't been faked?"

"Gods. You don't. You'll have to trust us."

James turns back to Astrid. "I'm not of this world. I was designed by Mattie and family. I could share memories of them interacting together? Before my consciousness was backed up and transmitted."

"How?"

"Come and talk to Veronica, she'll create a bridge between us."

"You want to do construction?"

"A data bridge." He holds out his hand. "I'm doing this for you and my friend Niska."

She takes it. "Alright then."

[Chapter-48](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-48-1)


	48. Chapter 48

With their blessing Niska left Mia and Laura to enjoy each other's company and the MLD sales work, got the first flight home. Travelling alone had been a bit scary. She'd taken comfort in knowing her sister and Laura were by her side during the journey out. At times she got annoyed with herself, the Niska in Mattie's world would probably have done it without any worries at all. She needed to be stronger.

Arthur wasn't on the flight but one of the other staff she'd seen was. They made her plenty sweet drinks and let her rest. 

On getting through Heathrow customs she stepped into the arrivals area expecting to have to call an Uber. There's a cry from a baby girl.

She turns to see Molly in Matilda's arms, Daniel and .. Astrid! "Astrid!"

Astrid smiles back, "Niska."

Niska moves fast, but not too fast, smiles with eyes and mouth, "This is really happening?"

Matilda watches Astrid's expression, "Take things slow Nis, she's not had the same experiences as the Astrid Mattie knows."

Niska takes her hand, "We have all the time in the world."

That time raced past. Daniel spoke to their RAF contact and found out who'd done their chip manufacturing. They struck a deal that allowed them to continue to do so under license. The Angel Foundation took a small percentage of profits. The chip was made available to the public, not just government departments. Revolution at last.

Max read all the code in the large book, transferred it to Veronica who made it available to Matilda.

The end of summer was marked with an MLD mile stone. The RAF had flown over the lake and used the surface-to-air recovery system described by James. The first batch of battery cells were in the UK for Daniel to add the permanent charging electronics.

The next generation build machine was built. Not one to stamp out a newer shiny James. He was fine with just better weather proofing. One that could build synthetics with the improved skin formula from George and the new chip design. Veronica was the first to use it, their volunteer test pilot. She'd learnt a lot about this world through her interactions with the others and wanted to be a part of it.

MLD started getting some serious media attention, not all good.

Matilda sat in the conference room, looking at nothing, Molly crying.

Daniel finds her, "There you are. What's wrong?"

"She's not there. She's still not there. And Molly's got more teeth coming through, they're hurting. We've managed to do so much with all the help from James and Veronica. I wish I could share it with her."

"Mum's here, she's made Molly some new clothes."

"Come on Pickle, let's see Grandma C."

James looked out of the door at the rising sun and drying lake bed. "I think it's time we went up to the larger cell size. The one for us. Anyone disagree?"

The other five remained quiet.

"Good. Do we have enough materials left?"

"For three cells that size."

"When's our supplies drop?"

"It was supposed to be here a fortnight ago."

One looks at two. "When you made the call over the satellite phone you did give our new GPS coordinates didn't you?"

"Yes Sir!"

"Are you certain of that?"

"Yes Sir. I have a recording of the call too."

"Then it must be human error. Make a first cell and charge it. We'll do a UPS enabled swap and you can walk to our original drop location to see if it's there."

"That's thirty seven kilometres away sir!"

"Yes. It's a big lake isn't it. Good job we weren't dropped at the north bank. That's ninety kilometres away."

"If I could walk to the drop site on a single charge could I get back? And how would I bring back supplies?"

James One looks around their small factory. "We need a hovercraft."

"It's a shame we don't have the parts to make one."

"Don't we? We're not using the sheet we used as a sail. And we could spare one of the big fan pump units. Remember the video Toby watched on flyboarders. They stood on a pair of jets of water, controlled their direction by leaning. We'd need two large batteries, one for the fan, one for the rider."

"I'm not riding a home made tiny hovercraft."

"Then I will."

Molly forgot about her gum ache for a few minutes and looked at the four dresses laid out before her. She points at the red one with black trim then the pastel pink and lastly the black and white patchwork one.

"Not the green one Pickle?"

She wasn't a pickle and didn't want to look like one. Maybe when she was older. She shook her head.

"Not a problem dear, I can sell it easily."

"Sure Grandma?"

"I'm sure dear. Three out of four is a good number wouldn't you say?"

"I would actually. She's quite a fussy baby, very particular about her looks. Mols, it's your birthday soon, which one are you going to wear to the party?"

The red and black one gets a point.

"See, she knows what she likes."

Daniel smiles at the women. He'd not met one yet who didn't know what she liked. Apart from Niska. And she was improving now she had her Astrid.

Max joins them with a cold teether lolly in a bowl. "Mia made this for Molly, it should help her. It's probably the gums that are hurting the most."

Matilda frowns, "What's it made of."

"Matilda juice."

"Wha.. oh. My expressed milk?"

"She said you were producing a lot, maybe this would help?"

"If the crying stops, yeah. It'll help her and me."

[Chapter-49](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-49-1)


	49. Chapter 49

James Two accepts the cell that had been worked up the line from raw lithium salts with Six to Three gluing the lid in place after getting connection terminals checked. Apart from the ones dedicated to the production line they had a dozen heavy duty charging circuits. Enough to make two cells each. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes. You're all my forks but none of you have a sense of adventure or risk taking. Why is that?"

"Maybe you're damaged and our forking of your code has corrected the fault?"

James one looks at his brothers, forks, clones. "You could be right. It does go against law three. But this world won't grow without people pushing at the edges. I won't go down in the history books as being one of them, but that shouldn't stop me helping."

Two plugs the cell in. "It's charging."

"Keep a close eye on the thermals."

"I will."

In Mattie's world History had been punctuated with battery related explosions. People had been careless with casing designs, tried to cheapen the charging electronics or other materials. USB emergency chargers, phones, laptops, drones, radio controlled toys, low end electric cars. All using lithium and going boom. When they went wrong you knew about it fast. Mattie's Danny had improved designs for DCL batteries adding more failsafe mechanisms. As they didn't have his electronics James and Veronica got data sheets on every possible controller and sensor chip in Matilda's world and picked the very best. Their cells had an array of temperature sensors, if a hot spot grew it couldn't get a chance to cause a cascade failure. There was short protection, also a data terminal so the appliance connected could get data on temperature, current and voltage statistics. Safety first, awesome power second.

"Sir?"

"Yes Five."

"Your small hover board idea, can I make a suggestion for a slight alternative?"

"You may."

"Mattie's Toby wanted to try out that extreme sport, the one with a suit like a flying squirrel. We could use the sail sheet to make you a suit."

"And where's the mountain I jump off?"

"Do you need one? Make a hovercraft style skirt small enough to put your chest on. Have the fan give a lot of lift and a little thrust, then vary the output to lower the lift and give more thrust. Keep adjusting until you're airborne."

"And how do I adjust between lift and thrust?"

"The motors for pulling or pushing bolts?"

"Brilliant. That's what I'm talking about Five! Crack open the nylon filament and power up the 3D printer. We're doing this. Pushing the edges."

While the Candlin family slept James One and Five worked through the night on a design. Laura slept too, cuddling Mia who'd crept into her room when they were sure the others were asleep. No sex, just light kissing, cuddles and sleep. Astrid didn't need to creep around, her relationship with Niska was in the open.

"We should drop the honeycomb internal mesh, you want maximum strength One."

"True. We'll use a lot of our filament. We should do a very thin wall high mesh mockup first, check for fit."

"That and the final print won't leave us much."

"Enough for a second thin test model?"

"By my calculations, yes."

"Then we do a mockup first. We'll add filament to the order for the next drop."

By the time the sun rose James One had his prototype ready for testing, the second power cell had been made and charged. He had bolts taped to his feet. In part to add weight to the tail end of his robot flyer, in part to protect them from being dragged along the ground as he accelerated to takeoff speed. The fan assembly was strapped to his back. Two ducts made of bent rod and sheeting took the air around his chest to the hovercraft like skirt at the front. He had two 3D printed switches, one to turn the fan on and off, one to power the worm drive that had originally moved bolts.

"Good luck boss."

James One was face down, the cracking lake bed only a couple of inches from his nose. "If you see something that looks like a daytime firework in a moment it's probably me."

"Do low altitude test runs first boss. Telemetry okay?"

Telemetry was limited to battery status and his own GPS. "MLD we're Go for main engine start."

Five didn't dare comment negatively. It was One's moment. "FJ1 we have you on visuals, proceed with main engine start."

"FJ One?"

"Flying James boss."

"Oh." He throws the switch. The fan screams into life and he's flipped onto his back, a cloud of salt is sucked through before he can switch it off. 'MLD we have a problem!'

'Boss, start with your feet far apart.'

James cuts the power, waits for everything to settle down and rolls face down. He does as suggested with his feet, throws the switch again. 'That's better. The left side has a far higher output. Something to perfect back at MLD. I can compensate.'

'Looking good FJ1, start secondary engine.'

James flips the second switch. The drive starts to tilt the fan in it's mount. Air escapes and his chest starts lowering towards the ground. As it tilts further he starts to get some forward thrust and far less lift. Just enough to stop his chest being scraped along the ground though. As he gathers speed he checks the battery status. It was good, not draining as fast as expected. He nudges the tilt switch again and picks up even more speed.

Five looked at his unit head getting smaller as he raced away. 'Boss? Can you hear me?'

'I can.'

'The feet bolts are glowing, you're sending up sparks.'

'All or nothing now then.' James One pushes the switch and gets the fan on full tilt. He had just enough lift from the suit to compensate for the lack of inflated skirt. 'And we have liftoff!'

Five watches as One slowly raises up from the ground, the iron and lithium sparks stop. 'Don't get too high, you need to practice landing.'

'If I mess that up now or later it's the same result. I'm off for reconnaissance.'

Five turned and hit the door. "He's on his way!"

The others come to the door and see him heading north.

Molly woke her parents with crying.

Matilda rolled over to see her, "Molly want a milk lolly?"

Molly smiled and nodded.

"Let me check the freezer upstairs, give me a moment."

She wraps up in her dressing gown and heads for the lift. In the kitchen she finds Mia sat on the island worktop, Laura stood close. "Morning ladies, how are you both?"

Laura smiles, "We're good thanks, aren't we Mia?"

"We are indeed. And you Matilda?"

"Me, I'm good. Hoping you made more than one lolly."

"The very bottom draw."

"Awesome, thanks! She loved the one she had yesterday and it calms her gums down."

"Good, just as I'd hoped."

"Laters."

"Matilda?"

"Yes Mia?"

"Any plans for Molly's birthday party yet?"

"Gods. Something to get planning. No, not yet."

James One gets higher and higher. For the first time in his existence he was doing something that lit his cores up like a Christmas tree. If anything failed he'd be The Robot That Fell To Earth. He had no plans for becoming famous for failure. When A1 and L1 flew it was either unpowered or being pulled along by a drone. A fan like this was so much better. He did a quick GPS calculation, he'd got to almost ninety kilometres an hour so far in the descent. In the distance there was a small blue dot. The container?

'Five? Can you hear me?' No reply. He ups the transmission power. 'Five?' Still nothing. He sets it to maximum. 'Five?'

He was out of range. The small aerial on his head wasn't long enough. Another thing to modify another day when back with Daniel.

The blue dot becomes clearer as he gets closer. It was two dots. The dots resolve into the container and a small flat bed truck.

[Chapter-50](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-50-1)


	50. Chapter 50

The flight had been quite an experience. Landing? He searched his memories for a suitable method. No parachute. He should have used one of the chutes tied to the container, though getting to it would have been difficult. His best option was to turn off the fan, glide and change his angle of attack to slow his approach, get close to a stall speed and try and drop to his feet. He couldn't tuck and roll thanks to the fan on his back.

That was his plan. It didn't pan out into such an elegant sequence of manoeuvres. At about twenty feet from the ground his suit stopped giving adequate lift and he dropped to the ground. Wanting to protect the battery and fan for the return trip he kept face forward.

He'd hit the ground hard. "The Robot That Fell To Earth. Good job nobody was able to see that." He lay in the dirt and did a full systems check. Everything appeared to be okay.

The occupant of the truck hadn't moved during his approach. Or since. The drivers door was open, the windscreen covered in a film of dust. It was far too hot for anything carbon based to survive out here without a lot of water.

As expected the driver was dead. A male of unknown age. Dried to a crisp in the heat. With all the salt about no bacteria survived, he was perfectly preserved. He must have seen the RAF flight and followed it onto the lake. With his temperature beginning to slowly climb James checks out the container. Bolt cutters lay on the ground beneath the padlock. The clasp had light scratches, the human had been unable to cut it open.

James went to the cab of the truck, found keys in the steering column. He turns them. Nothing. His chats with Bart about old vehicles came in handy. He found the bonnet release and popped it. He yanked the power cables from the battery and untaped the battery and fan from his torso. He cautiously connected the car to his cell. The key was turned slowly and clicked into the first position. The CD player came on, played an old hit by Shakira. The fuel gauge needle climbed, there was plenty. Wires twisted around the terminals better he turns the key further and starts the engine. It was a mystery. There was plenty fuel. Why hadn't he given up with the container and driven off? Why die here listening to the CD?

He checks the body for signs of wounds, there were none. There was an empty water bottle, nothing drug related.

With his head back under the bonnet he takes a closer look. The belt to the alternator was shredded. He'd probably driven for miles not knowing he was running the battery down. Shakira had been singing Antes de las Seis. Before Six O'Clock. Only the gods new when the power died. Then James realised the most likely series of events; drive out with failing power, step out with engine running to keep the cab cool, then return to it to find the battery dead. It must have been a slow agonising death.

"Sorry chum, I need your vehicle now you've finished with it." He opens the passenger door and carries the body around the truck, sits it back down and does up the seat belt.

The lines from the drogue parachute were tied to the tow hook, "We're heading south." He carefully uses the bits of tape he can peel from dirty layers to hold the lithium cell in place. With the bonnet carefully secured he gets into the cab. "Stick shift? This will be fun. Hopefully I don't get a box of neutrals."

His first attempt to get everything moving was met with failure. The container's leading edge dug deeper into the ground. He sat in the cab for a while with the AC on full cooling down. "Got any ideas buddy? No? Not very talkative are you."

With his cores cooled he turns off the engine and takes stock. There was a few short lengths of rope and a shovel. For a second he thought of burying the body. Leave a place better than you found it Mattie had said. There might be family that were missing him and needed closure. A walk around the truck revealed nothing else. Then he realised he wasn't getting the fan back on without his brothers help. He went to undo the ropes from the tow hook and noticed the split pin holding a hinge pin in place. The truck's shallow sides could hinge down for easy loading. "Hinges! Mankind's second simplest invention after the wheel. Wonderful!"

Another closer search is done. A tyre iron and pair of glasses are found, a bunch of dry paper. He checks the man's eyes, difficult with everything so dried up, but there they were visible in the small gap between eye lids. The bottom of green MLD contact lenses. It was possibly someone Laura and the sisters had met.

"What am I doing? Not processing straight in this heat for sure!" He walks to the other end of the container and picks up the bolt cutters. Within minutes he's chopped the heads off the split pins and used the tyre iron to smack the hinge pins out. A bit of digging gets the truck sides under the lip of the container, the two long ones lengthways, the short one strung between them, held with lengths of rope around the hinge brackets. More lengths of rope from the chute were hopefully going to stop them being pulled underneath. "Ta-da! One container ski. Let's get moving."

Given the right sideways pressure the salt crumbled like powdered snow. The four wheel drive truck dug in several inches before the container gave up its stubbornness and started to move. "Yee haa! We're heading for the nearest equivalent of civilisation!" He folds down the sun visor, finds a collection of CDs. "Got anything in English buddy?"

The dead man just faced forwards.

"Life and soul of the party you are."

[Chapter-51](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-51-1)


	51. Chapter 51

Veronica sat in the conference room and waited for Matilda. On the large monitor her design rotated to show it from all sides. Hopefully everyone would like it. She'd done a lot of research for it.

Matilda enters with Molly on her hip. "Sorry Veronica, I got intercepted by James Eleven. They have some sad news from Salar de Atacama."

Veronica turns and looks worried. "Has there been an accident?"

"Yes, but our James are okay. A man Mum met has died. He'd gone to the lake, probably hoping to steal contact lenses or something else of value from the shipping container. Somehow it got dropped to the first drop point not the revised one. He died of dehydration."

"How sad."

"James Five says James One flew! Hopefully we'll get a picture soon."

"That's appropriate."

"Excuse me if I dash, I'll be back in a moment, Pickle's done a stinker."

Three weeks later another container was dropped to the unit. This time the airplane landed, bringing passengers.

Daniel steps down the cargo ramp wearing a sensible white linen shirt and trousers. "One! How's it going?"

"Good now thanks. We got a bit of bother from the police when they came to collect the body and truck."

"Why?"

"They kept asking to see the human in charge. I had to keep saying you were in the UK, it was all part of a deal signed with the ministers."

"How long were they here for?"

"Almost four hours."

"Bloody hell. Why so long?"

"We had to make up a charge cable."

"For?"

"The satellite phone."

Daniel raises his eyebrows. "Oops. My bad."

"James!"

The two men turn to see a lady in uniform walking down the ramp.

James would have frowned if he could. "Hello. Do I know you?"

"You don't recognise my voice?"

"Veronica?"

"The one and the same."

"Impressive. You.. move differently."

"Gravity tends to do that to a body." She turns and sticks two fingers in her mouth, does a shrill whistle. "Owen, get yourself out here! Help with the upgrade for James!"

She turns back to James One, "Something Matilda taught me." She reaches into her jacket pocket and pulls out a name plate, hands it over.

"Gold not silver?"

"For after the upgrade. Twone said you were quite the adventurer."

"He did did he? One moment." He walks away and steps into their small factory. "Where's Two?"

"I'm here One."

"Fancy leading the unit?"

"Are you going?"

"I'm about to get an upgrade. I want to know you're up to having a promotion in case something goes wrong."

"Yes Sir."

"Wait here then, I'll be back as soon as possible."

Through the glass of the door they see a uniformed man and lady follow Daniel and One into the container. "What sort of upgrade do you think they're going to give him? We're sorting the batteries out. More cores or storage?"

"Maybe a tougher alloy shell? Something with better weather proofing and scratch resistance."

"That would be nice Four."

"Better radio? Or the WiFi Daniel hoped to make?"

"Maybe Five. All nice upgrades. I wonder how long it's going to take? We should get back to production. We're here to work not gossip."

[Chapter-52](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-52-1)


	52. Chapter 52

Matilda sat Molly down in her bouncy chair and searched for party ideas. There were lots of things on offer, none felt suitable.

Niska and Astrid joined them.

"Hiya. What do you get for a girl that's having a first birthday party, has the mental age of at least a three year old but refuses to talk?"

Niska looked at the screen. "Clowns and balloons."

Molly swore.

"Oh. My. Gods! Did you really just say that Pickle?"

Molly kicks out hard.

"Frigging hell. Definitely not clowns then from that face."

Astrid rests both hands on Niska's shoulder, "She's her mother's daughter. A chip off the old block."

Matilda snickered, "Where _did_ you learn those sayings?"

"I've been reading. Lots. Every online book I can find. Fan fiction too."

Niska turned to see her and gave her a light kiss on the lips, "Her fact store is growing nicely. You'd not think it was over eighty percent army data when you first met. All information in the public domain I hasten to add. She's not a security threat."

"Glad to hear it."

The banner at the top of the web page changed.

Molly points, "Mama!"

The door to the small factory opens and the four walk in.

Two turns to see them. "What sort of upgrade was it then? You don't look any different One."

"Got that very small screwdriver handy Two?"

"Yes. What do you need it for?"

"Spoilers Two.."

"One moment One." He opens a draw and finds the tool. "Here you are."

One gets the fine blade in the small hole by the end of the name badge on his chest and levers it off.

"Your upgrade is a new gold badge? That's hardly a fair reward for all you've done."

A new badge is snapped in place. "What's One One."

"Three in binary. Eleven in decimal?"

"Or two if single digits and added together."

Two looked at Daniel. "Can you explain please?"

Dan nods and indicates with open hands, "Sure. This is James Eleven. This is Veronica. And this gentlemen, is James One."

"Oh my circuits! Sir! You look amazing! You both do!"

Days got even busier and time raced away. James was able to work alongside Matilda and Daniel in a lot more places, his true identity hidden. He changed his name to James Owen. Veronica took the surname Owen too and they moved into a room at the hive. In return for lodgings they started The Angel Foundation School. All MLD directors had agreed that what this world needed was a new generation of engineers. They didn't have the massive auditorium of Mattie's Sentinel House so used the port on minus two for larger talks. One thing that amused the visiting children and their teachers was the school of robot fish, underwater drones. They were simple tiny submarines inspired by Flyer One that would swoop up against the glass to blow all of the silt away.

Matilda found herself being asked to attend more and more talks on the James Robots and AI in general, advanced software writing and how to get the best out of the new multi-core RISC CPU. She created a non-sentient version of his code that would allow others to create simple robots of their own. Daniel got pulled into doing consultancy work with Intel. With hints from James they skipped whole generations of CPU such as the i486 and original Pentium and went straight to Core i12. Or rather their design that worked as closely as the one in Mattie's world would.

One Sunday when all together at the estate Molly had surprised everyone. The men were having a kick about with a football, Fred had passed a fast ball to Daniel and he'd missed it. She'd jumped off Matilda's lap and gone running after it, got on the other side and given it a good kick roughly in the right direction. In a pink dress with tutu skirt she'd hardly looked like a footballer. Astrid joined her and waved Niska over, suddenly a kick about had become a three a side football game. Chairs were quickly used to mark goal posts. Max had done some comical fake dives to let her get a couple of goals. They all had to do slow motion running to allow Molly to keep up. She wasn't a girly girl or tomboy. She was a blend of both. The most comical part was her yelling "Yes!" every time she went to kick the ball. A single kick and the word seemed to be permanently linked in her mind.

The operation at the salt lake was expanded with a second, third, then fourth open out container as others learnt about the advantages of lithium batteries. MLD was set to become one of the most successful firms on the planet. As promised all those months ago the majority of the profits were pumped into the foundation to fund charity work, build or renovate hospitals. The ministers decided not to build their own manufacturing plant and contracted MLD to do the work. Bigger processing machines were built that crawled slowly across the lake, raw salts went in at the front, finished cells loaded into lorries at the back. Two James kept an eye over each machine, the processes all automated thanks to code from Matilda and hardware designs from James and Daniel. 

Life was good. Matilda did her Hello religiously every morning after breakfast and exercises. Molly got taken to talks with her mother, would sit in front of the front row of students facing the white boards and projection screen. Students and staff would often fuss over her for a while before the seats filled and talks got underway. The little girl lapped it up.

It was Friday, the weekend in sight. The professor stood at the front of the podium. "Good morning students, Molly, Matilda. Today is a rather special day for someone in this room." He waves in other staff who start to form an orderly line behind him and Matilda. "One person attending this lecture has done truly outstanding work. As you know we encourage students to contribute, push the envelope, be the water and the sponge, give and take, share ideas. Without their contributions we wouldn't have our new abstract languages to program the chips."

Matilda looked around the class. Quite a few of the students had contributed in equal amounts. Giles a bit more than the others.

"So we're rewarding her.."

Oh. Not Giles then, unless he was going for a sex change.

".. a special title. It takes into account years of work done before she joined us. I'd like you all to stand and give a round of applause as you say a special Hello to Doctor Matilda Candlin."

One hundred and nineteen people all saying loudly the word Hello together had been too much. Matilda fainted.

Molly jumped from her seat and ran to her mother. "Mummy!"

Talks were cancelled for a few weeks, the University concerned for Matilda's health. Fred did all the quick checks he could. All came out negative. They bought an x-ray machine for the room at the end of the hive corridor. Matilda had said not to buy it just for her, Laura pointed out that they were supposed to be a hospital too, even if only a small one. Everything checked out okay.

"Morning Doctor Candlin, I've put a fresh pot on, glad to see you back."

"Thank you professor. You can still call me Mattie."

"If you'll call me Richard."

"You've got a deal."

"And how is young Molly? Excited for your party? You're the smartest little girl I know. Actually that's a bit sexist. You're the smartest three year old I know."

"I'm good thank you. I'm _almost_ three."

"Exactly how old are you Molly?"

Molly steps around his desk and gets on tiptoes to try and reach his calculator.

Richard slides it over.

She takes it and taps in a number.

"Does this take into account the leap day in 2032?"

Molly nods.

Richard takes the 2.98630136 and turns it into days to her birthday. "Six days and counting?" He gets a nod. "Do you know what young lady. I'll revise my statement. You're almost three years old but as bright as many of the students in my lectures. I've never once seen you sleeping in that little chair of yours. You really do listen to it all and soak it all up don't you?"

It gets another nod.

Richard looks over to Matilda. "Was she always so bright?"

"Yup. Right from the start. We had one kick for yes, two for no. We learnt sign language so we could communicate early. And she was always around Dan or me, listening to all our design ideas."

"That's not the only reason Mummy."

Matilda kept pouring coffee, prayed her daughter wouldn't give away too much.

Richard turned in his chair and leant forward, "What other reasons are there Molly?"

"I don't eat junk food that Mia says would fog my brain. She's a good cook, grows our own peas and spinach. I _love_ peas." She holds up her hands and makes a heart sign.

"You don't like pizza, the staple food of students?"

"Yuck!"

Richard has a good hearty laugh. "What an interesting study that would be. Pay half the students to get off pizza and let the other half continue, see how their grades improve over a term. What do you think Matilda?"

"Yeah, why not? Healthy body, healthy mind. It's worked for my family."

"Could you get your friend Mia in?"

"No need. It's super simple. If it's processed just say no. Plenty of green veg. That's it."

Of course that wasn't quite it. No way was the true magical mix of Eat Me cakes getting out. Not for another ten years at least.

[Chapter-53](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-53-1)


	53. Chapter 53

The professor opens a draw in his desk and pulls out a folder, "I'm glad you're back for another reason too. The day we announced your new title we were going to award first, second and third place winners of the AI & Nature awards."

"You were? I thought that was still being judged?"

"The judges were quickly unanimous on the winner, it was second and third place that had them debating for a while."

"So who's won the Angel Foundation funding to go into production?"

"Belinda for her AI swimmer."

"Awesome! You liked that one too didn't you Molly."

"Yes Mummy."

Belinda had made a solar powered pontoon that would navigate to known hotspots for plastic caught in tidal currents. It had a long and wide slightly sloped conveyer belt that would bring floating things up into an observation area. Using different light frequencies the AI would quickly work out what was seaweed, natural materials or animals and what was man made plastics. Man made rubbish got picked up for putting into a giant bag, everything else was allowed to continue past and fall back into the water. When downwards facing cameras were able to detect discarded fishing nets a small diver robot no taller than Molly would go down and cut the nets free. Belinda had effectively made two machines in one.

"So who's won second place?"

"Helen with her beach cleaning version. I'm not sure who copied who but the designs have a lot of similarities."

Helen's idea also used a conveyor belt. Matilda telling everyone in her first talk that she'd worked at a checkout in a supermarket for a while may have sown the seed of an idea. Helen's took things up and over the edge of a bowl, down into the bottom and back up the other side. Any plastics would float and be washed sideways in a gentle flow of water into a bin. Sand and stone would be returned to the beach. The AI was used to drive the machine and avoid obstacles.

"Good for her. And third?"

"Giles."

"Cool! If his works for real I want to wear the first diamond it drops! Daniel promised me a larger stone and I'm still waiting."

The professor stood, "For his high altitude atmosphere scrubber to be built surely you'd have to back all three? His design was mostly theory and simulation. Was that your intention all along?"

Molly giggles, "Oops. Spoilers!"

The professor picks up the folder and heads to the door, "Why not say so from the start?"

Molly jumps up onto a chair and from there into her mothers arms.

Matilda catches her little gymnast. "Revealing more than one prize wouldn't have given them the hunger to be first."

They all step into the hall.

"Do you think his design can really work?"

"The chemists say the method should work. The airship will have constant daylight flying above the clouds. Piloted by two AI it will be able to stay way above jetliner flight paths. And a pilot would have to be frigging blind to not see it."

"What about the temperatures and pressures needed to create diamonds though?"

"That's the clever bit. The old school press method with machines that weighed hundreds of tons would never have flown. Literally. A balloon to lift that weight would have been colossal. And can you imagine the carnage if it fell out of the sky onto a city? Chemical vapor deposition, that's the future. Giles miniaturising the equipment design, that was the genius bit."

_Fell out of the sky_ was an in joke with the family. James Owen had admitted to everyone at MLD how his trip to the container had almost ended in total failure, how he'd do it again if needed. The improved fan and suit design would make future flights far safer, edges weren't pushed by those unwilling to take some sort of risk. Even little ones. He and Veronica had become authors, writing books about future worlds. They used them to plant ideas, further seeds for change. Mattie had got them in as guest speakers. James had mentioned what chemical vapor deposition was used for today, questioned what it could be used to make tomorrow. He then dropped an almost subliminal hint that there was lots of carbon around to pick out of the air for free. No prizes for guessing which of the pizza or pizza free groups Giles had been in with Belinda.

[Chapter-54](http://markse.name/humans/GHOSTS-CONT/Chapter-54-1)


	54. Chapter 54

On the morning of Molly's third birthday Daniel goes running through the factory with her in his arms, "ANGEL! WHERE ARE YOU!" He runs along the corridor and turns the corner into the kitchen. "There you are! Angel! You'll never believe it, guess what's happened!"

Matilda continued to wash out the rice cooker bowl they'd used the night before, gazed out of the window at Mia's vegetable plot. They had awesome peas at the estate. The greenhouse and special lamps kept them growing all year round. The fact Daniel was carrying Molly made her think it was somehow related to their daughter. She'd heard her daughter's first mama, dada, Mummy and Daddy, first word of her own, which was frig, no surprise there. She'd been there for the first use of the potty, seen the first scribbled crayon drawing. Daniel was apparently a blue scribble, she was a red scribble, Molly a green one. She'd seen Molly's first steps at the age of one, heard her first singing, her first dancing. If jumping up and down on their bed while holding a doll and pretending it was a microphone counted. Her first composition for Fred's pipe bells had brought tears to their eyes. She'd seen her blow the candles out on her second birthday cake with no help from anyone else. She'd seen her single handedly eat a whole large bar of chocolate on her own. Or at least discovered the empty wrapper and a very chocolate covered face giving her the cutest guilty eyes ever. Molly then discovered the joy of popping pods and switched to eating fresh raw peas. She'd seen her daughter point to clothes she liked, pick her own wardrobe.

Molly had spent a lot of time with her uncle Max. Five weeks ago her first C program had been written with no formatting for easy reading and compiled on the fifth edit. It had been a large program, looked at photos from Max and sorted them into those that used the rule of thirds, golden ratio or Fibonacci number. The whole family had watched it reduce a number of images to a lower resolution and colour depth, draw lines where it thought the rules applied. They'd left it running for hours. Max had looked at the result before dinner and declared it had an accuracy of 98.8 percent. Molly had looked disappointed and asked why it had failed. Max explained that it hadn't exactly failed, it had just picked the first rule that matched. Some of the images could fit _multiple_ rules. So it had been one hundred percent accurate if she ignored the fact she could only move the image to one folder. What a kid. And she was hers and Dans.

Matilda turns and smiles, grabs a tea towel, "I honestly can't think of anything." She throws a curveball answer to see what would come back, "What's Daddy invented now then Pickle?"

Molly whispers into his ear.

"Not yet Mol, let Mummy guess. Let's give her a clue. It's not me. Um, you first did this not quite three years ago."

Matilda leans back against the worktop, dries her hands, "Three? I met someone I'd not seen in years three years ago. You. Someone we've not seen in years has turned up?" 

Molly screams with delight and wriggles in Dan's arms.

"Mol don't give it away!"

"Am I close?"

"Quite."

Mattie lets a smile out, "Toby's last contract was signed a bit over three, I helped him with the papers. It's something to do with him?"

"Sorry, no. He'll be here again next month. Try again."

"It's related to a person not a thing?"

"Correct."

"Don't tell me my Dad's come crawling back after money?"

"No, thankfully."

"Sophie?"

"She'll join us at Christmas as planned."

"Family?"

He pauses to think, this was fun and he didn't want it to end so quickly, but he also didn't want to anger his wife. "You could say that. If you asked Am I Warm I'd say Hot."

"So someone close family?"

"There's not much closer."

She thought of asking if her mother had come out of the closet with Mia. But a promise was a promise. She looks at her daughter, "So if it's not.. hmm.. I call Mia, Niska, Fred and Max family, that close or closer? It must be about Molly then."

Molly wriggles and giggles in her fathers arms.

"Definitely about Molly then. But three years? Another clue?"

Daniel whispers to Molly. She takes a deep breath and sings Hello at the top of her little lungs.

How could one word be so haunting. Matilda goes ghostly white and dizzy, memories of standing in the ruins flooding back, the passing out in front of the students and staff. "Frigging hell Dan! Did you put her up to that?" She scowls.

"No!"

Almost three years. Was it coincidence that so much happened around her daughter's birthdays? So much had happened in such a short time, so many good things until the operation had brought the silence, the dark spell, then after her official birth great things with Molly and Dan. She still missed Mattie. Not so painfully these days, but at times it still felt like she'd lost a limb. "So you didn't teach her that Dan?"

"I did say no." He looks at his daughter and back to his wife, " _You_ did."

"I don't think I.."

"Mattie you."

" _What_?"

"Mattie's kids are special. Just as Molly is. An IQ of a kid at least three times her age with some abilities we can't explain. Your tumour came out the same time as she did. What if it _was_ the tumour that had given you the ability to talk to Mattie, _but being inside you when a lot of it was going on Molly learnt the trick too_?"

Mattie was lost for words, tears flowing.

"Molly, tell Mummy what you said to me."

Matilda watches her daughter whisper into his ear.

"Yes Molly, _all_ the words, _exactly_ as you said them to me, it won't be naughty this time. I promise."

Molly turns to face her mother, takes a really deep breath, "Daddy, why did Mummy shout KNOB COCK YOU ARSE GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THAT VR SYSTEM AND COME AND SEE KAREN AND PETE!"

Mattie's mouth opened and closed like a fish gulping water to breathe. No words came out.

Daniel had a sparkle in his eyes. "And before your brain reconnects your mouth and you say something here's the fun bit. We've never _once_ told Molly about the history file shared. She has no idea who Karen and Pete are. I asked Molly to sing Hello as loud as she could. Mattie answered. _Mattie bloody answered_! If I make a small cap for Molly and fire up the proxy code I think the link is ready to start again."

Molly reaches out with both arms for her mother.

Matilda wipes tears away, "Want a cuddle Pickle?"

She nods. As she's being turned to put on a hip she hooks a heal into her mother's waistband, reaches up and quickly grabs Matilda's face between both hands, pulls it to face hers. Her mother quickly places a hand on the small of her back and bottom to stop her falling backwards. They'd done this before. Mattie puckers up expecting the usual kiss.

Instead Molly bumps foreheads. 'I'll teach you Mummy.'

Matilda stumbles a little with the shock, pulls Molly into a tighter hug. "Oh my Gods! Dan! Molly just head bumped me!"

"You mean she bumped your head?"

"No, head bumped, like the Elsters do, talked to me."

"Molly? Did you just do that?"

"Yes Daddy."

He holds his arms out, "Can you do it to me?"

"I'll try."

She gets in a similar position with her father. 'Hello Daddy?'

"Holy Moly Molly! What's really in those cakes we've been munching? Where's Mia?"

"Do you realise what this means?"

"No?"

"If she can talk to Mattie my backup could be sent to her world. _And come back_!"

"If Molly can do it maybe Mattie's children can be told how to do it too? Then she could come here too."


End file.
